A Force of Nature
by SayidRocks
Summary: A confusing murder case and an annoying potential victim complicate life for the BAU and in particular for Dr. Spencer Reid.
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer: **I don't own the characters; I don't own 'Criminal Minds'. I only own the characters and the plot I have created. I am also assuming I don't need to explain who Hotch, JJ and the others are, etc.

/\/\/\/\

'_**A Force of Nature**_**'**

Chapter One

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The elevator door opened and team members Reid, Morgan and Prentiss walked into the Behavioral Analysis Unit. "It must be another local case," Morgan commented over his shoulder to Prentiss. "JJ said not to worry about a go bag."

"She didn't tell me that," Prentiss commented. "I was told to bring mine."

"I was also told not to worry about a go bag," Reid added.

Just then Rossi came out of his office and motioned to the three. "JJ and Hotch are ready in the conference room."

"What have we got?" Morgan asked as the team settled into their seats around the table and opened the file folders JJ had placed at their seats.

"Frankly," Hotch remarked, "We're not exactly sure what we have."

Prentiss looked at him. "What do you mean by that?"

Hotch motioned to JJ, who clicked on a slide and turned back to the team. "We have three victims," she stated as the team looked at photographs of two men and one woman. "All shot to death execution style. Linda and Peter Grains in Philadelphia, Dawson Malloy in Trenton, New Jersey." She clicked on another slide and a series of twelve photographs appeared on the screen. "In addition we have another twelve _potential_ victims; living in six separate cities."

"Okay, you lost me," Morgan commented. "How do we know we have twelve potential victims?"

"What connection do they have to the actual victims?" Reid asked.

"The only thing any of them have in common is they were all in Bermuda at the same time," Hotch commented.

"Bermuda?" Rossi asked. "Were they all part of the same tour group?"

"Yes and no," JJ sighed. "The Grains and two of the potential victims were traveling as part of the same tour group. The other eleven people just happened to be there the same time they were."

Morgan's brow furrowed. "I don't get it. How do we know about potential victims unless we know they have something else in common?"

"Because we also know that all fifteen of these people received identical death threats by letter," Hotch inserted. "Since three of the fifteen are now dead we can safely assume the other twelve are potential victims."

JJ clicked on another slide and a copy of the threatening letter appeared on the screen. "I know what you saw," Prentiss read aloud. "You will pay for what you saw. You will pay with your life." She looked around the room at the others. "Pretty vague."

Reid looked up from his folder. "According to the police report, the Grains were killed almost two weeks ago. If all these people received the same threat, why are we just now hearing about it?"

JJ continued, "Because the Grains and Mr. Malloy died in two different cities no one made a connection at first." She clicked on a picture of one of the potential victims. "Alan Riverton lives in Philadelphia also. He reported his threat to the local police, and at that point it was connected to the Grains case. The detective in charge of the Grains case entered information about the threat into the national database and discovered there were eleven other reports regarding an identical threat from Simi Valley, California; Boulder, Colorado; Saint Louis, Missouri; Mesa, Arizona and Great Falls, Montana. The other two members of the tour group were Bill and Lynda Duncan from Saint Louis."

"What about the twelfth threat?" Reid asked.

JJ clicked on the last picture just as Garcia entered the room. "Oh, my gosh!" she gasped. "Is that who I think it is?"

JJ laughed. "Yes, Penelope, it _is_ who you think it is."

Reid looked at her in confusion. "Who is he?"

"His name is Daniel Meier," JJ continued. "And he did receive the same threatening letter as the others. However, he has had an ongoing issue with a stalker for several years. And, since he's gotten used to receiving mail from his stalker, he basically opened the letter, read the first line and then filed it like all the others he's gotten over the years."

"He threw it out?" Morgan asked.

"No, he filed it. Literally. When I spoke to him on the phone he told me he has a file box containing various pieces of mail he's received from his stalker. He said when he first started receiving the mail he would throw it out, but then his father convinced him he should save them all as potential evidence. He simply filed it under the date he received it and forgot about it."

"You _talked_ to him? On the phone?" Garcia gasped.

"Down girl," Morgan laughed. "What made Meier change his mind about this letter?"

"Apparently his mother was watching a television show with a Crimestoppers report that mentioned the letters and the fact everyone involved had been in Bermuda at the same time. She mentioned it to her son who then dug his own letter out and called the local police," Hotch said.

"So Meier was in Bermuda when the others were?" Rossi asked.

"Yes," JJ continued. "And so were his parents."

"Wait a minute," Reid said, sitting up in his chair. "It says in the file here there are twenty other members of the tour group, plus family members and friends of the ones who were there on their own, a total of thirty-five additional people; but none of them have been threatened."

JJ nodded. "Exactly, Spence. That's part of the mystery. That's why we aren't sure exactly what we have here. Everyone was in Bermuda at the same time, not all part of the same group, not staying in the same hotel, most of them did not know each other, and only some of them have been threatened. In the case of Daniel Meier, for example, _he_ has been threatened, but his parents who were on the trip with him, have not been."

"So, exactly who _is_ Daniel Meier?" Reid asked.

"Kid, don't you know anything?" Morgan joked. "Daniel Meier was on the U.S. Olympic figure skating team in Vancouver."

"He certainly was," sighed Garcia.

"Garcia watching figure skating I can believe," Reid commented. "But you Morgan?"

"Hey, I watch figure skating, mostly the ladies and the ice dancing."

"Why? For the short skirts?" Reid looked at Morgan with a smirk.

"Only if they're over twenty-one," Morgan laughed.

Rossi shook his head and looked over at Hotch who sighed. "Can we please get back to the case?" He looked around at the group. "All the victims who have been threatened are now under police protection. Local F.B.I. offices in their cities will be interviewing them and passing the information on to us. Daniel Meier lives over in Georgetown. Morgan, I want you and Reid to go to his house and interview him. Prentiss and Rossi will go to Trenton and talk to the police. JJ and I will go to Philadelphia, talk to the police there and also interview Alan Riverton. At this point Mr. Riverton and Mr. Meier are the only two potential victims we'll be speaking to ourselves, so let's make the most of it."

"I love Georgetown," Garcia commented to no one in particular.

"That's nice, Penelope," Rossi said as he stood up.

Garcia turned to Morgan. "I don't suppose…"

"No."

"Derek, come on! I just want to meet him!"

"No," Hotch added. "You're not going."

"Oh, you're all so…so… Oh, never mind!" Garcia snorted, stomping off in a huff.

Hotch shook his head as Morgan chuckled. "Come on, Reid. Let's get going."

/\/\/\/\

**The hardest thing about this whole story idea was coming up with a crime that it made sense for the BAU to become involved with.


	2. Chapter 2

-1

**Disclaimer: **I don't know them, I don't own them, I own only my plots and the characters I created…

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_**A Force of Nature**_

Chapter Two

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As he and Reid drove toward Georgetown Morgan commented, "You really have to wonder how a person can be so used to receiving unwanted contact that they would just file a death threat in a box like it was wasn't even important."

"Well, I suppose it may have just become a coping mechanism for him if it's gone on for a while."

"Maybe." Morgan turned the SUV down the street and pulled up in front of a small house with a patrol car parked in front of it. As he and Reid climbed out of the vehicle they were approached by two uniformed police officers. "Afternoon," Morgan called to them. "I'm SSA Derek Morgan, and this is Dr. Spencer Reid." Both men showed the officers their badges.

One of the officers nodded. "Yes, we were informed you were coming. You can go on up to the house. I know he's expecting you."

"What's this guy like?" Morgan asked as he tucked his badge into his pocket.

"He's pretty cool, actually. He had pizza delivered to us for lunch, and he had breakfast brought to the officers who followed him to the rink this morning. He was just out here bringing us some soda a few minutes ago."

"Beer too?" Morgan joked.

The officer laughed. "Yeah… We're hiding it in the trunk 'til we're off duty."

Morgan laughed himself as he and Reid started up the sidewalk to the house. When they were about halfway there the door opened and a dark-haired young man wearing faded blue jeans and a Vancouver 2010 tee shirt stepped out on to the porch. "You guys are the F.B.I. agents, I guess?"

"Mr. Meier?" Morgan asked. "You really should have let us come up to the door and show you our badges."

"What for? I just saw you show the cops your badges and they let you through."

"I understand that. I'm just saying that for extra security…"

"Maybe you'd like me to go back inside and shut the door so you can knock on it, then I can open it and look at your badges? Will that make you feel better?"

Morgan sighed. Meier's irritation was evident, and probably understandable. "No, that won't be necessary."

"Yeah, okay." Meier turned and Reid and Morgan followed him into the house. Once inside the three men stood facing each other.

"I think we got started on the wrong foot here. I'm SSA Derek Morgan, and this is SSA Dr. Spencer Reid. We're with the Behavioral Analysis Unit of the F.B.I."

"Daniel Meier," he said, extending his hand to the two agents, who shook it. He gestured to some chairs around a kitchen table and the three men sat down. Looking from Morgan to Reid he commented, "Neither one of you looks like an F.B.I. agent."

Morgan chuckled. "What do we look like, Mr. Meier?"

"It's Daniel. I don't know. I can't say you don't look like profilers, because I don't know what a profiler looks like. I guess you look like law enforcement. You just don't look like the F.B.I. agents you see on TV." He looked over at Reid. "Hmm… You I don't know. If you were a little older I'd say you looked like a college professor or something. What are you a doctor of?"

"Uh, actually I have PhDs in Mathematics, Chemistry and Engineering; and I also have B.A.s in Psychology, Sociology and Philosophy."

"Uh, okay. So, what are you then, some kind of genius or something?"

"Although I don't believe intelligence can really be properly quantified, I do have an I.Q. of 187 and an eidetic memory, so…"

"Reid," Morgan sighed.

"Eidetic memory?"

"Uh, that means…"

"I know what it means," Daniel interrupted. "It's based on visual cues. You remember everything you read, as opposed to a photographic memory, which isn't solely based on visual cues."

"Uh, yes. That's about it," Reid said quietly.

Morgan stifled a chuckle. "Okay, Daniel. What we're trying to do is determine what it is you and fourteen other people have in common other than simply being in Bermuda at the same time."

"I can say I genuinely have no idea. I've gone over this again and again, and I _just don't know_."

"Have you been shown photos of any of the others?" Reid asked.

Daniel nodded. "Yes, the three that were killed."

"None of the others?"

"No, Agent Jareau said you would be showing me some more photos."

Reid pulled a folder out of his messenger bag and handed it to Morgan, who pulled a stack of photographs out of it. Both agents watched as Daniel looked through the photos three times shaking his head each time. "I just don't recognize any of these people." He looked up at Morgan in frustration. "I'm sorry."

"Yeah, I imagine this isn't exactly pleasant for you or the others." Leaning his arms on the table he continued, "JJ, excuse me, Agent Jareau, indicated you had an ongoing problem with a stalker?" At Daniel's nod he went on, "I was thinking, if you like, why not show us the mail you've received and we'll try to see if we notice anything that might be helpful in finding this person."

Daniel looked at him, then after a few minutes he stood up. "Okay, I'll go get the box."

"Morgan, what are you doing? We're not here about a stalker!"

"I know kid. But we're here so why not take a look?"

Daniel returned with a cardboard file box which he placed in the middle of the kitchen table. "This is full. Next one I get is starting a new box."

"Maybe there won't be a next one?" Reid said hopefully.

Daniel looked at him. "There _will_ be a next one. There always _is_. They arrive an average of once every ten days, sometimes less often; but usually every seven to ten days."

"Did you know one in twenty-two adults in the United States have been stalked at some point in their lives? That's nearly 3.4 million people at any given time. Stalking victims are more likely to be white, and women are more likely than men to be stalked. Also, approximately 46% of victims report being contacted at least once per week; and 11 % of victims report being stalked for five years or longer. Less than fifteen percent of stalking victims are celebrities, though certainly being in the public eye…" Reid's voice trailed off when he noticed the look on Morgan's face. Daniel just stared at him.

"How long as this been going on?" Morgan asked.

"Since 2004. I've got them all filed by month and year received. And it follows me everywhere I go. I moved out of my parents' house and the letters turned up at my apartment, my home rink, competitions, the Olympics, now this house… I used to just throw them out until my father told me I shouldn't."

"Okay Reid, get going. Start reading through these and separate them into any pile you think they fit into."

Reid nodded and pulled a stack of paper out of the box. "These are pretty well organized, Daniel. You have each letter attached to the envelope it came in, and the date received written on the envelope." He began reading and quickly started first one pile, and then another. Morgan started asking Daniel questions regarding what he'd done while in Bermuda, and Reid's two piles were getting stacked higher and higher.

After running through everything he'd done in Bermuda nearly hour by hour, Daniel looked over at Reid and finally asked, "What are you doing? Are you actually _reading_ all of those?"

"Yes," Reid replied without hesitation. "I can read 20,000 words per minute."

"You can read what?"

"Why two piles?" Morgan asked.

Reid looked up. "Because, based on the language patterns and tone, there are two separate people contacting Daniel. Hence, two different piles."

"I have two stalkers contacting me?"

"At least two. But, I'm not done yet." Reid went back to reading the letters.

Daniel sighed. "You know, every chance I get I tell my fans they're the best fans in the world, because to me, they _are_. I love my fans. It's not easy to be close to the people who support you the most outside of your family when you don't know which one of them it is that might be threatening you. So basically what you end up doing is distancing yourself from people who only want to show you they care about you. And, of course, the fans don't understand how _frightening_ it all is, or why it isn't safe for you to eat the cookies or the brownies they made for you, or why you don't stop and talk to them as much as you used to, when all they were trying to do was be nice to you."

"I'm sorry," Morgan said.

"Believe me, so am I!"

"Okay, I'm finished," Reid announced.

"With all of them?" Daniel asked in amazement.

"Yes. Like I said, I can read 20,000 words per minute..."

"I see three piles. Why three?" Morgan interrupted.

"This first pile? All of these seem to have been written by the same person, based on the language used, tone, and the degree of sophistication the vocabulary shows. I would say this particular person might be classified as a stalker; but based on the content of the messages they basically seem to have been written by an overzealous fan with no intent to cause any real harm." Reid straightened the pile and placed it back into the file box. "This second pile is written by an entirely different person; and, again based on language, tone and vocabulary this person is definitely obsessive. This one definitely thinks you have a personal relationship with them. Classic stalker behavior, no doubt about it. Again, based purely on tone and vocabulary I would say they were all written by the same person, most likely a female." Reid straightened the second pile, then pulled a large manila envelope out of his bag and placed the pile inside it. He then placed the envelope back into the file box. "You really need to keep the letters from each person separate."

"What's the third pile then?" Daniel asked.

Reid hesitated. "Have you read all of this yourself?"

"Of course."

Reid looked uncomfortable. "These are definite physical threats. They do everything to insinuate physical danger short of putting the specific words down on paper."

Daniel paled a little. "I didn't think they were really threats. I just thought the person who sent them was a little loopy or something."

"Why weren't you more concerned about the actual death threat then?" Morgan asked. "The threat is a little vague, but the language is pretty specific in that one."

Daniel looked at him. "I didn't read it because at the time I hadn't felt like dealing with it. I read the first line 'I know what you saw'; and I thought to myself, 'Okay, whatever'. I didn't even look at the rest of the letter until after my mom told me about the Crime Stoppers thing she saw. I didn't know it was a death threat until then because I hadn't read it."

"Reid, when did the ones you think are physical threats come?"

Reid looked at the dates on the envelopes. "All within the last four months."

"Daniel, I don't suppose you have a fax machine?"

"Actually, yes. I have one of those all in one scanner, copier, and fax printers."

Morgan stood up. "Unless you have some objection, I'm going to fax those threats to us at the BAU so we can look at them more closely later."

"Why?"

"Just thought I'd help you out a little," Morgan shrugged.

Daniel looked at Morgan with a quizzical look on his face as he started to use his fax. He turned to Reid. "How can you possibly get all the facts out of what you're looking at if you read as fast as you do?"

"I just do."

"Where do you put everything? I mean, if you really remember everything you read, where do you put it all?"

"In my head," Reid said, looking puzzled by the question.

"Well, I would think at some point your brain would be full. Sooner or later something must start falling out the back end while new stuff is coming in the front end."

"That's impossible."

"I didn't mean it literally, Dr. Reid."

"Oh, I see. You were kidding, then? Okay. Because the human brain only uses a fraction of its real capacity anyway. Therefore it would be difficult to completely fill it to a capacity where no further knowledge could be imparted into it."

"Difficult, but not impossible. So, you read all this stuff, but how much of it do you experience?"

"What do you mean?"

"I mean, if you read a play, do you ever see it performed live? If you read a book, do you stop and imagine what the characters actually look like? You've got all these facts inside your head, so what do you do with them?"

Reid looked at him, remembering a Sheriff during a case in Alaska who had said almost exactly the same thing to him. "_Forgive me if this offends you Agent Reid; but I so see myself in you! You can probably quote Shakespeare word for word, however you can't fully experience Shakespeare unless you see a play live. You think a Springsteen concert isn't better than just listening to a CD? You watch 'Star Trek'; do you think it would be the same if you had just read a book about it? You like Beethoven? How many symphony performances have you been to? One. You are going through life collecting facts, not experiences. You need to concentrate a little more on the experience and a little less on the facts themselves._"

"Did I hear you ask Reid what he does with all those facts?" Morgan asked. "I'll tell you what he does; he spouts facts and statistics at a breakneck pace at practically any opportunity."

"Oh, I see. I guess that's how some of the knowledge comes out the other end and his brain doesn't get overloaded." Morgan laughed while Reid just looked annoyed.

"I think we have everything we need for now. What we'll do from here is compare notes from the interviews with the others, and try to determine if you have anything in common you haven't realized yet. We'll be back in touch with you if we need anything else."

Daniel nodded. "Okay."

"Uh, Daniel…" Reid began. "We have this co-worker back at the BAU, our team's technical analyst, who is a fan of yours. She even tried to get us to bring her along so she could meet you. So basically we were wondering, well I was wondering, if you wouldn't mind signing something for her?"

"I have fans at the F.B.I.? Cool!"

Morgan laughed. "You haven't met Penelope Garcia yet."

"What do you mean?"

Reid made a face. "Garcia is someone we all love, but she can be a little, well, overwhelming at times. But when she likes you, she likes you and no one better mess with you or there's hell to pay."

"I think she sounds cool."

A few minutes later Morgan and Reid were climbing back into the SUV with their notes and an autographed picture for Garcia. Morgan ignored Reid's assertion he wanted to drive and got behind the wheel. "You never let me drive," Reid complained. Once Morgan started the car he continued, "What's with all this stuff about the stalker? It's not our case."

"I know Reid. But having you look at the letters while I talked to him seemed to draw more out of him. He still didn't think he knew anything, but I did get a lot of details that may or may not mean something. He's a little scared, even if he doesn't admit it. And the stalker would be an F.B.I. case because of the crossing of state lines. It won't hurt to take a look, because he could be in genuine danger." Reid nodded his agreement as Morgan pulled the vehicle out on to the street.

/\/\/\/\

I'm a little concerned Daniel is not coming across the way I want/need him too. These things write themselves so much easier and quicker in my head. Consequently, this might be a little lame.

Places to go for crime statistics (to make sure Spencer is spouting the right numbers, lol): . ; .gov/ ; ./ ; .org/wiki/Crime_in_the_United_States , and I'm sure there are others as well. The one statistic I was looking for but could not find was the percentage of average people versus celebrities that are stalked. Therefore, that one I made up!

10


	3. Chapter 3

**Disclaimer: **The usual; I don't own 'Criminal Minds' or the characters. I only own my plot and the characters I have created.

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'_**A Force of Nature'**_

Chapter Three

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"Morgan, this is not a BAU case," Hotch said.

"Come on, Hotch. It's an interstate stalking case. That makes it federal, and therefore F.B.I."

"Morgan, I know how hard it is to look at something like this and say we can't do anything about it. However, in this case there is no specific threat against Daniel Meier. All we really have is Reid's belief the person who wrote those letters intends to cause him physical harm."

"You tell me how often Reid is wrong about these things, Hotch!"

"Morgan, you know that's not good enough. We can't offer him federal protection based on that. All we can do at this point is the same thing we've done for everyone else involved in the Bermuda case; provide a police presence."

"So like so many other cases we just wait until the stalker attacks the victim before we react."

"Morgan, that's _enough_."

Morgan shook his head. "I'm sorry, Hotch. I just have a bad feeling about this one."

"I get it. We're just limited in what we can do."

Morgan left Hotch's office and headed for his desk where he plopped down in his chair and sighed. "What's wrong?" Reid asked.

"I didn't get anywhere with Hotch."

"I was afraid of that. He has to follow the rules."

Morgan shook his head and reached for a file on his desk. Just as he flipped it open his cell phone rang. "Morgan." He listened for a moment. "Slow down. You received this today?" He reached for a pen. "What was the specific wording? … Listen, I'm going to give you a fax number. You send me a copy of that letter immediately. I will get back to you as soon as I possibly can."

"What?" Reid asked after Morgan had disconnected the call.

"Daniel Meier received another letter in the mail today. This one is very specific. There's absolutely no doubt it's a death threat this time."

"What did it say?"

Morgan handed Reid the paper he had been writing on and headed for the fax machine. "_You've been ignoring me for four months, Daniel. You shouldn't have been ignoring me. I don't like it when people ignore me. I can get to you. I know where you live. I know where you train. I watch you all the time. It's time for you to die,_" he read aloud. The stalker then went into specific details of how they planned to hurt Daniel. "Geez!" Reid commented to no one in particular.

"What's that?" Prentiss asked as she walked up behind Reid holding a cup of coffee.

"It's a new threat Daniel Meier received today."

"It's it related to the murder case?"

"No, it's from one of his stalkers."

"_One_ of them?"

"Yes, I think he has at least three."

"Come on, kid," Morgan called, waving a paper at Reid. "We're taking this to Hotch right now."

"One can only hope this is a sick prank," Hotch was saying a few minutes later as he held the fax in his hands. He handed the paper over to Rossi who was sitting across from his desk.

Rossi shook his head. "Did he fax a copy of the front of the envelope as well?"

"Yes. The postmark is from Chicago, same as the other letters Reid felt were threats," Morgan answered.

"Where in Chicago specifically?"

"Zip code 60611. One of the businesses located in that zip code is the Chicago Tribune, as well as the Crowne Plaza Hotel, The University of Chicago, The Marriott Magnificent Mile Hotel, the Wrigley Company, Playboy Enterprises…"

"Reid, not now please," Morgan interrupted.

"Another time I'd be interested in finding out why you knew that was where Playboy Enterprises is located," Rossi grinned.

"Uh, I uh, I just knew," Reid blushed.

"Morgan you told Daniel Meier you'd call him back, so let him know we will be heading over there as soon as possible. Tell him to expect us in a couple hours, please."

/\

A pale Daniel Meier opened his front door in response to Morgan's knock. "Hey, Daniel. Can we come in?"

"I'm glad to see you guys," he said, opening the door wide.

"Of course you know me and Reid. This is SA Jennifer Jareau, SA Emily Prentiss, SSA David Rossi and SSA Aaron Hotchner."

"So we finally meet, Agent Jareau." Daniel led the way to the kitchen table. "I only have four chairs…"

"No problem," Rossi responded. Daniel, JJ, Prentiss and Hotch sat around the table while Rossi, Reid and Morgan stood leaning against the couch.

"I hope you don't mind, but when Agent Morgan gave me your names I looked you all up on the Internet." He looked at Hotch. "I'm really sorry about your wife, Agent Hotchner."

"Thank you," Hotch said quietly.

"What did you find out about me?" Rossi asked, breaking a short silence.

Daniel turned and pointed at a bookshelf in the living room. "I have a couple of your books. You're a respected man."

"Just out of curiosity," JJ began, "Who got the most hits?"

"Dr. Reid. But Agent Rossi wasn't far behind."

"Figures," Morgan commented. "The kid usually beats all of us at the Google game."

"You have a nice house, Mr. Meier," Prentiss commented.

"It's Daniel. Thanks. My mother did it. She's an interior decorator."

Hotch watched quietly as JJ and Prentiss engaged Daniel in conversation about his house and whether or not he liked living in the D.C. area. He could see him visibly relax as the two female agents talked to him. Hotch knew it wasn't sexism to realize a woman could often do a better job of putting a victim at ease. Therefore he sometimes had Prentiss and JJ take the lead in this type of situation. It was obviously working this time.

"Mr. Meier," Hotch began after a few minutes. "Your stalker sending you a death threat from across state lines has made your case a federal case, and that makes the F.B.I. the investigative agency. We'd like to check the envelopes the threats were mailed in for DNA; and the letters and envelopes for possible fingerprints."

"Okay. I have them right here," Daniel said, pushing a manila envelope toward Hotch. "The one that came today is in there, along with the ones Dr. Reid put aside the other day. I also put the list Agent Morgan asked for of anyone I know in the Chicago area in there. There are a few names on that list, including a couple of skaters at the National level."

"We're not accusing anyone, Daniel," Reid commented. "We're just being thorough."

"We'd also like to offer you federal protection in addition to the police presence outside your house," Hotch added.

Daniel sighed. "I already have cops following me to and from the rink, to and from the grocery store and everyplace else I need to go, as well as hanging around outside 24/7… What the heck else do I need?"

"A safe house where you'd be under round the clock protection."

"No way. I'm not leaving my own home, Agent Hotchner."

"Okay, then we'll offer you extra protection here at your house."

"I don't want strangers hanging around my house all the time. The police cars outside are bad enough. My neighbors are getting pissed."

"It would be our team handling the detail, Daniel," Morgan commented.

"I thought you guys were profilers."

"We are. However, we're also federal agents. We've provided protection to victims in cases we've worked on before."

"I don't know…" Daniel sat with his arms folded for a few minutes before continuing. "I didn't even go to the rink to train today because that letter made me think twice about whether I wanted to drive to and from Rockville. My coach called and yelled at me for fifteen minutes when I didn't show. Any of you guys ever have someone yell at you in Russian for fifteen minutes?"

"Uh, not lately," Rossi joked.

"Well, it isn't fun. That's for sure!" He looked around at the team. "So, someone would be here all day and all night? And at the rink also?"

"That's the idea," JJ said.

"Well, okay then. I guess whoever is here could put their stuff in the guest bedroom. When do we start?"

"Tonight. Morgan and Reid will come back later for the evening detail. Prentiss and Rossi will relieve them tomorrow, and Reid and Morgan will be back again tomorrow evening," JJ told him. "Agent Hotchner and I will be coordinating the murder investigation with the other teams, so we won't be here."

"Okay, I guess."

"So," Morgan said, pushing himself away from the couch. "Who's bringing dinner, then?"

/\/\/\/\

A/N: I keep thinking how hard it must be to be Hotch. He always has to play devil's advocate, and try to be practical and so on. You all know what I mean if you watch the show.

I know the death threat isn't worded great. It was hard to come up with something that sounded right, so I finally just left it the way it was. I'm so lame sometimes!


	4. Chapter 4

**Disclaimer: **I don't own '_Criminal Minds_', and I don't own the characters. I only own my plot and the characters I have created.

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_**'A Force of Nature'**_

Chapter Four

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

At six pm Daniel opened his front door to Morgan and Reid. "Come in you guys," he said, opening the door wide.

Morgan held up a bag from a nearby restaurant. "We brought food."

Daniel took the bag and set it down on the kitchen table, along with a tray of soft drinks Reid handed him. "You can put your stuff in the guest bedroom down the hall on the right."

"Well, one of us can," Reid commented. "I get the couch tonight. Same as last time we did this type thing."

"What, did you lose the coin toss or something?"

"Yes."

Daniel laughed. "That's funny!"

"Hilarious."

"You know, as long as I'm stuck doing this, I'm sure glad it's you guys and not someone else. I think we can get along with each other."

"Sure," Morgan commented.

"Can I call you guys Derek and Spencer instead of Agent Morgan and Dr. Reid?"

"I don't have a problem with that," Reid said. Morgan nodded. "Can I ask you something?" he continued as the three sat down at the table and reached for their food.

"Sure."

"Rossi and Prentiss are coming in the morning, and they'll be going with you to the rink. Is it okay if Morgan and I bring Garcia by? She really wants to meet you."

"Sure, why not?"

"You're saying that now," Morgan laughed. "But will you still be saying that after?"

Daniel looked from Morgan to Reid and back. "You're starting to scare me, Derek."

"Don't listen to him, Daniel. Garcia is really okay. She's simply...enthusiastic."

"Well, that sounds okay. Derek, do I have to stay in the house or can I go out?"

"You just need to have one of us with you when you go out. You're not under house arrest, you're under federal protection. We can't force you to stay home."

"I'm not running out tonight. I didn't mean that. I was just asking for future reference. It's just that I used to have a life at one point in the past. I'm not sure exactly _when; _sometime before the Olympics, I think." He thought for a minute. "Some time in 2009, maybe? Yeah...that was it! Sometime in 2009 I briefly had a life, until I decided to try for the Olympics again and I no longer had one."

Morgan laughed out loud. "Sorry man. It just sounded funny the way you said it."

"The Olympics are over, though," Reid commented.

"Yes, well, I haven't decided yet whether I still want to hang around or not."

"So until you decide, you're just like Reid. You have no life," Morgan laughed.

"Very funny, Morgan. Ha, ha!"

The three men slipped into an easy banter as they ate. They decided to watch DVDs when they were finished. The question they could not agree on the answer to was what DVD to watch. Morgan groaned when Daniel suggested they watch '_Titanic_' after Reid revealed he had never seen it. Morgan couldn't help laughing when Daniel stared at Reid when he started spouting statistics on the size of the actual ship, the engines, the number of crew people, and how the movie was wrong about how many survivors had been pulled from the water after the ship sank.** Then he went on about how the movie was right about the ship breaking into two pieces before it sank, and that the actual ship's baker had survived the same way he had in the movie.++ As the movie's credits ran while Celine Dion sang _My Heart Will Go On_, Daniel asked, "Is he always like this?"

"Pretty much," Morgan laughed.

"Ha, ha," Reid inserted, "You pick a movie this time about a subject I have no statistics for."

"Any suggestions, Daniel?"

"I have hundreds of DVDs, Derek. I don't know. How about a comedy?" 

"You have '_Alvin and the Chipmunks_'?"

"Of course!"

"I've seen that!" Reid complained as Daniel and Morgan enthusiastically took '_Titanic_' out and put '_Alvin and the Chipmunks_' in.

"Tough," Morgan laughed.

"You pick the next one, Spencer."

"It'll be like two in the morning. You may not even be awake," Reid complained.

"Great, I won't have to watch it then."

"That's not nice, Derek," Daniel laughed. "If he's not awake you can watch it tomorrow night, Spencer."

"Great," Morgan said, tossing a handful of popcorn at Reid. In response Reid dumped the rest of the bowl over his head.

"Too bad Garcia wasn't here to see that," Reid said. "She'd have laughed her head off."

"You guys are too much," Daniel commented as the movie started.

/\/\/\/\

"Do I look okay?" Garcia asked as they walked toward the building.

"Baby girl, you _always _look okay!" Morgan commented.

"Are you sure? I'm finally meeting Daniel Meier today. I want to look good!"

"You look fine, Penelope," Reid said. "That dress is very attractive on you," he added, looking down at the flower print dress his friend was wearing.

"Really?"

"Let's not embarrass ourselves, okay?"

"Morgan, _when_ have I ever embarrassed you?" She thought for a moment then added, "Don't answer that!"

Morgan chuckled as the trio walked inside the building where Daniel's training rink was located. As they approached the ice they could see Prentiss sitting in a chair watching a black clad Daniel out on the ice. Rossi was sitting a few feet away reading a book. Prentiss looked up at them as they approached. Garcia sighed. "He looks really good in that outfit," she commented.

"You should see him when he's wearing jeans," Prentiss responded. She blushed almost immediately. "Uh, I mean... Uh, never mind!"

"I don't believe this," Rossi commented from his chair as Morgan shook his head. "We thought Garcia was the one we had to worry about."

"Hey, Daniel!" Morgan called. "Come meet Garcia!"

Daniel immediately skated over to where the group was standing. "Hi, guys." He looked at Garcia. "You must be Penelope. I understand you're a fan of mine."

"Uh, yes..." she squeaked. "Thanks for the picture."

"Penelope Garcia, meet Daniel Meier. Daniel, meet Penelope Garcia," Morgan said. Daniel extended his hand to her, and she shook it. She then stood looking at her hand as if she'd never seen it before. Reid and Morgan looked as if they were both close to losing a battle to not laugh.

"You're outfit is great, Penelope," Daniel commented. "Where do you buy your clothes?"

"Oh, uh, all over!"

"Well I like your taste in fashion. I think you must be a completely unique person." Garcia blushed.

"Dan-yel!"

Daniel sighed as he heard his coach's voice call his name followed by a rapid stream of Russian. "I have to go. She's still mad at me over missing practice yesterday," he said, rolling his eyes. He smiled widely at Garcia. "I'm sure we'll see each other again. Maybe we can go skating sometime?" He leaned over and kissed her on the cheek before smiling at her again and turning away.

"Uh, uh... Okay. Yeah. Great idea. Skating together. Wonderful idea," Garcia said, touching her cheek.

"Boy, he's good!" Reid commented to a chuckling Morgan as Daniel skated back out to the middle of the ice.

Garcia was alternately looking at her hand and touching her check. "I'll never wash this hand or this cheek again," she sighed.

"Baby girl, that was not cool!" Morgan laughed.

"Did I act stupid?" Garcia asked.

"Penelope, you acted like a teenage groupie," Rossi commented.

"I certainly did _not_," Garcia said in a huff. "_I_ don't act like that!" She turned and started to walk away. "Humph!"

"Wait, aren't you going to watch Daniel skate?" Reid asked.

She started to turn back around and then said, "No. I can take it or leave it."

"Oh, sure!"

"Okay, well, maybe I'll just sit here with Emily and watch," she said plopping down in a chair next to Prentiss.

Prentiss leaned over to her and said, "You do realize, of course, that Morgan is _never_ going to let you live this down?"

Garcia looked at her and then over at Morgan, who was grinning at her. 'Boy am I in for it,' she thought to herself.

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

** In '_Titanic_' Rose indicates she and six others were rescued from the water after the ship sank. In reality fourteen people were pulled out of the water.

++ The ship's baker was the man dressed in white who was next to Jack and Rose on the back end of the ship when it went into the water. He survived in reality the same way he survived in the movie.

A/N: I made Penelope Garcia a secondary character in this story because how she and Daniel interact is important to me. I didn't realize it would take me four chapters to get to this point, and I really hope it comes out the way I want it to in the future. It doesn't seem that complicated when it's all written in your head already. :- ) The story is really more about the characters as opposed to the action, but more does happen later in the story to both Daniel and Reid.


	5. Chapter 5

9

**Disclaimer: **The usual; I don't know them, I don't own them, I only own the plot and characters I have created.

Spoiler for the episode '_The Performer_' (Season Five).

/\/\/\/\

'_**A Force of Nature**_'

Chapter Five

/\/\/\/\

Rossi sat down in a chair opposite Hotch's desk. "Any progress on the murder case?"

Hotch shook his head. "A couple of the others thought they recognized Daniel's picture, but we don't know for certain if that's because they actually saw him there or because they may have seen him on television."

"That does complicate things a little. Nothing more on the murders themselves?"

"The three murders were all committed with the same caliber weapon; but not the same weapon."

"That's it?" Rossi sighed. "How about the stalking case?"

"Our DNA analysts have found saliva on the envelopes. It's being analyzed. The stamps were self-sticking, so no DNA there. No fingerprints have been found on the letters or the envelopes. How did things go the first day over Daniel Meier's house?"

Rossi shrugged. "Not much happened. He went to the rink, stopped at the grocery store, and then went home. At the house he talked on the phone a lot and spent a couple hours on the Internet. Frankly I think he's too scared to do much else right now."

Hotch sighed. "I don't doubt it."

/\

"Garcia," JJ said, poking her head into Garcia's office. "Is that Daniel Meier's picture taped up on your monitor there?"

"Yes, it is. What's your point?"

JJ laughed. "Oh, just asking! And I also heard you were practically drooling over him at the rink."

"Who talked to you? Who told you? Derek?"

JJ laughed. "Oh, maybe. Might have been him, might have been Emily. Bye, bye!"

"Great," Garcia grumbled. "Now I have JJ giving me a hard time." She smiled at the picture. "It was worth it, though. _And_ I'm going to have to talk to those two traitors!"

/\

"What are we doing to keep ourselves amused this evening?" Morgan asked.

"Well, it's not like I don't have anything _else _to do; but we have no shortage of DVDs to watch. And we did promise Spencer he could pick the next one."

"Great."

"Come on, Derek! How bad could it be?"

Morgan mumbled something in response. "I heard that," Reid said, coming out of the bathroom.

"What you heard was nothing, wise guy."

There was a knock at the door. "That must be JJ. She said she would stop by on her way home and bring us some dinner."

"I do know how to cook, you know," Daniel commented.

"So do I," Reid added.

"I've been known to whip up a meal myself. However, I say if a pretty lady is willing to bring me dinner, who am I to disagree?"

"Us, Morgan. She's bringing _us _dinner, not just you." Reid added as he looked through the peephole. "It's dinner, but it's not JJ."

"Who is it, then?"

"Garcia," Reid answered as he opened the door to his friend.

"Good evening, gentlemen," Garcia said as she breezed into the house carrying several bags from a nearby Boston Market restaurant.

"Boston Market? Did you bring me macaroni and cheese and cornbread?" Daniel asked, taking the bags from her and sitting down at the kitchen table.

"Great. Now she knows where you live," Morgan commented with a grin.

"Quiet," Garcia said, smacking him on the arm. She smiled at Daniel, and then rushed over to sit next to him. "You don't mind if I sit here, do you?"

"No, of course not."

Garcia smacked Morgan's hand when he reached for one of the bags. "Hey! What gives?"

"I'll be passing out the food, thank you." She turned to Daniel and smiled again. "You first."

"Thank you, Penelope."

Garcia smiled and began handing out plastic covered dishes as Reid passed around some silverware from Daniel's kitchen. Morgan looked at Garcia strangely when she politely put down Reid and Daniel's food in front of them but practically threw his at him. 'Okay, what did I do?' he thought to himself.

Daniel reached over and placed his right arm around Garcia's shoulder. A fork she had been holding clattered on to the table and she blushed and looked down at his right hand resting on her shoulder. "You don't mind do you?" he smiled.

"Uh, no…" she stammered.

"Thank you for bringing the food, Penelope." He smiled directly at her. "Now how did you know I liked their meatloaf?"

"Just a guess," she squeaked.

"Well, thank you. And you brought me macaroni and cheese and cornbread. I think you can read my mind, Penelope." He smiled once more before removing his arm from her shoulder.

"Don't forget to eat your green beans," Reid commented with a smirk.

"So," Morgan began. "How did you happen to bring us dinner instead of JJ?"

"She wanted to get home to Will and Henry, so I volunteered to come in her place. Do you have a problem with that?"

Morgan looked at Reid who looked back at him with a puzzled expression on his face. "Uh, no."

It took Garcia twice as long as it would normally take her to finish her food due to Daniel alternately leaning on her shoulder, smiling at her and leaning on his elbow to watch her eat. Reid had never seen her so flustered, and Morgan could hardly contain his amusement. Once the meal was finished Daniel excused himself from the table and headed for the bathroom.

"What's the big idea?" Morgan snapped once Daniel had left the room.

"What do you mean?"

"Well, let's take a look… You practically threw my food at me, you smacked my hand, and you snapped at me, you've generally been grumpy toward me since you got here. What the heck is your problem, Garcia?"

Garcia leaned forward. "You want to know what my problem is, Morgan? I'll tell you! How dare you run to JJ and tell her I was drooling over Daniel at the ice rink yesterday!"

"Uh, you were practically drooling over him…" Reid began.

"You keep out of this!" Garcia told him.

"Baby girl, I didn't say anything to JJ about it. I didn't even _see_ JJ yesterday."

"You didn't?"

"No."

"Seriously?"

"He's telling the truth, Penelope. Neither of us saw JJ yesterday."

"You could have called her."

"I could have, but I didn't."

"Who did tell her then? I don't think Rossi would." She thought for a moment. "Emily? JJ did say it might have been her. Why would she do that?"

"Uh, Penelope, you were being a little obvious yesterday. I'm sure Emily didn't mean anything by it," Reid said.

"She should talk anyway! She didn't act much better! She and I are going to have a talk!"

Just then Daniel walked back into the room. "Are you staying to watch a movie with us, Penelope?"

"Uh, no. I actually have to go. Sorry. Maybe some other time?" she said hopefully.

"Sure, why not?"

Morgan grinned. "Come on, I'll walk you to your car."

Daniel walked over to Garcia and enveloped her in a hug, and then kissed her on the cheek. "Thank you for coming by and bringing us dinner. That was very nice of you."

"You're welcome, Daniel," she said in a small voice.

As Garcia and Morgan reached the door Daniel added, "I love you, Penelope." Reid looked over at him and shook his head.

Penelope smiled at Daniel and then went out the door with Morgan. Once outside she looked at him and said, "Sugar, I'm leaving you."

"For Daniel? You're breaking my heart, Baby Girl!"

Garcia sighed. "You'll just have to deal with it, honey!" Morgan couldn't help smiling as she got into her car, backed down the driveway and drove away.

Once back inside the house, Morgan locked and dead bolted the front door behind him. He saw Reid and Daniel kneeling on the floor looking through a bookcase full of DVDs. He sighed and said, "Okay, kid. What do I have to watch tonight?"

"We're thinking about '_Dave_'. You know, with Kevin Kline and Sigourney Weaver.?"

Morgan sat down on the couch. "Gee, I thought I was going to have to suffer tonight. I actually like that one."

"That's my pick," Daniel said. "Spencer wants to watch '_Dr. Zhivago_'. You know, I skated to music from that movie once. I'm just not sure where I put the DVD. That's why I got '_Dave_' out to watch in case we can't find it."

"Great," Morgan commented, hoping the DVD would not be found.

A couple hours later Morgan jerked awake to see the television was turned off. He heard voices behind him. "You've never been to Disneyland?" Daniel was saying.

"No, never."

"You really have to go sometime, Spencer."

"Are you kidding? I'm twenty eight years old!"

"So? You're never too old for Disneyland or Disneyworld. You could take your godson Henry. That would be a good excuse for going."

"Yeah, kids are also a good excuse for watching cartoons," Morgan commented.

"Hey, you're awake," Reid commented.

"Yeah… How long was I asleep?"

"Forty-five minutes, maybe. We decided to do something besides watching movies. We've just been sitting here talking."

"Oh, yeah? About what?"

"Lots of things. We're finding out we have some similar interests."

"You're kidding. Like what?"

"Like books, for example." Daniel interjected.

"Seriously?"

"Don't act so surprised, Morgan. Some people do enjoy similar interests to mine and actually want to talk about books with me." Reid snapped.

Morgan looked at him, surprised at the irritation in his voice. "Okay, sorry. Gave up on '_Dr. Zhivago_', then?"

"Yes," Daniel answered. "It's still early. You can watch something else if you want. Tomorrow Spencer wants to watch '_Schindler's List_' instead of finishing '_Dr. Zhivago_'. "

"Great movie. Depressing as hell, but still a great movie."

Morgan knelt on the floor in front of the bookcase to look at the DVDs. Just as he was reaching for '_The_ _Warriors_', his cell phone rang. "Morgan… Hey, Hotch. You're not still at the office are you?... I see… Maybe it will turn into something… Okay… Yes, I'll let them know. Say hello to Jack for me and Reid."

"What's up?" Reid asked.

Morgan pulled the DVD off the shelf and stood up. "Well, first off, Hotch was actually calling me from home and not his office. Second, they found DNA on the envelope flaps of a couple of those letters and it's being analyzed right now. And tomorrow he's going to have Rossi and Prentiss come over like they have been; but tomorrow night it's just you. Then next day me and Prentiss."

"How come?" Daniel asked.

Morgan shrugged. "Don't know. I guess he feels during the day because you're leaving the house you need two of us. But at night with the police still driving by every half hour you only need one person inside the house with you. Rossi is being pulled off to help with the murder investigation."

"Okay, I guess." Daniel looked to see what DVD Morgan was putting in. "Good choice, Derek."

Two hours later Morgan was rubbing his temples as though he had a headache. It wasn't because he hadn't enjoyed the move; he had. '_The Warriors_' was one of his all-time favorite films. He'd gotten his headache from listening to Reid and Daniel talk incessantly the entire time. Actually, listening to Reid and Daniel argue was a more apt description of what he had been doing for the last 120 minutes. It had begun as a discussion of the merits of a Russian author named Vladimir Roskolsky. Daniel owned and had read a couple of the author's novels as they had been published in Russian, and Reid had only read the English translations. The argument had begun because Daniel disagreed with Reid's interpretation of a passage of text from the novel '_A Dream of Warriors_'.

"Spencer, you're interpreting it as though the words as you read them were a literal translation. You should know you can't do that."

"Just because you read and speak Russian, and own a couple shelves of books published in Russian doesn't mean I'm wrong and you're right."

"I didn't say it did. Don't you think Shakespeare would come across differently translated into Russian as opposed to being read in the original English?"

"I suppose it probably loses something in the translation."

"Of course it loses something, Spencer. It's _Shakespeare_! The beauty of _how_ the words are written is almost as important as the meaning of the words."

"Okay. I understand what you're saying."

"So why can't you accept that Roskolsky could lose something in translation the same as Shakespeare?"

"Because Roskolsky was just a novelist. He was a good writer, but he wasn't one of the greatest writers of all time!"

"What? What difference does that make, Spencer? The point is still the same!"

"No, it isn't, Daniel! Some authors are more known for their beautiful prose or command of language than others. Therefore a literal translation of an author's work is less viable with some writers than others because the effect of that command of the language is then lost."

"Spencer…"

"All right, I've had it!" Morgan practically shouted, standing up. "Enough, already! You two clowns are giving me a headache! Reid, one more word out of your mouth and I will strangle you." He looked at Daniel. "I don't want to hear anything else from you either!"

Daniel looked up at him. "Fine," he said, standing up himself. He walked over to the bookcase in his living room. '_A Dream of Warriors_' is on this shelf. I'm going to find that passage and prove my point to Spencer." He pulled the book off the shelf. "I would have done that already if I'd thought of it sooner."

"And how will I know you're telling me what's really there?"

"Learn to read Russian as well as I can before I find it, genius." Daniel stomped toward his bedroom.

Spencer opened his mouth as if to respond, but shut it quickly when he saw the look on Morgan's face.

Forty-five minutes later when Daniel came back out into the living room holding the book Morgan was sitting on the couch watching ESPN, and Reid was sitting at the kitchen table reading Daniel's copy of '_Twilight_'. He had found the book on the shelf while looking for something to read; and since JJ had teased him about not reading anything other than technical books after she realized he didn't know what '_Twilight_' was, he had pulled the novel out to read. He had '_New Moon_', _'Eclipse_', and '_Breaking Dawn_' sitting on the table next to him waiting for his attention.

"Uh, Spencer, I have something to tell you," Daniel said quietly.

"Please tell me it's not the damn book again," Morgan grumbled.

"Well, it sort of _is_ the book…"

"Oh, God!" Morgan groaned, rubbing his temples again.

"What?" Reid asked.

"Okay. Well. It's been a while since I actually read this book."

"And?"

"And, I may have misread the original passage the last time I looked at the book. And, if I misread the original passage that means the translation you read in the English version may not have been off like I originally thought it was."

"So you're saying what, exactly?" Reid said, clearly enjoying the moment.

Daniel sighed. "What I'm saying is that, in this particular case, with this particular book, at this particular time, you may have been right and I may have been wrong. There, happy now?"

"Wait, you were wrong?"

"Did I not just say that, Spencer?"

"Hmm… Let me see if I have this right…"

"You know, Spencer, I didn't have to tell you about this in the first place. I could have just let you go on letting you think you might be wrong. But I didn't. I was honest about it, especially since you couldn't really have proved me wrong, could you?" Daniel turned and headed for his bedroom, slamming the door behind him.

"Good night!" Reid called after him. He looked over at Morgan, who was glaring at him. "What? I was just having a little fun with him." He closed the book he had been reading and stood up. "Can you please get off my bed Morgan? I'm getting tired."

/\/\/\/\

A/N: Ah, Boston Market meatloaf, cornbread and spiral macaroni and cheese! Yummy!


	6. Chapter 6

**Disclaimer: **See my profile!

Spoiler for '_Profiler, Profiled_' (Season Two)

/\/\/\/\

'_**A Force of Nature**_'

Chapter Six

/\/\/\/\

Morgan woke up the next morning with a headache. He didn't think it was particularly difficult to understand why he had a headache. In fact, after listening to Reid and Daniel argue back and forth for two hours the previous evening he would have been surprised if he didn't have one. He groaned and climbed out of the bed wondering what he had in store for him in the next few hours before Prentiss and Rossi arrived to take over the detail. He pulled on his robe and stepped into the hallway. He immediately heard Daniel and Reid's voices drift toward him.

"Spencer, I just don't get you! How can you possibly put that much sugar in your coffee? It's like you're drinking coffee with your sugar, instead of sugar with your coffee."

"Daniel, what you just said makes no sense."

"Aren't you two starting kind of early today?" Morgan grumbled as he walked into the kitchen.

"Good morning, Sunshine," Reid said.

"Whatever," Morgan replied, as he poured himself a cup of coffee. "What time is it, anyway?"

"Almost eight-thirty," Daniel replied.

Morgan groaned. "Prentiss and Rossi will be here in an hour and a half. I guess I can get myself together by then."

"It's a lot of work being Derek Morgan, hunh?" Reid laughed.

"Yeah. Just like it's a lot of work listening to you talk all the time."

Daniel laughed out loud. "He got you, Spencer!"

Reid shrugged as Morgan reached for a bowl and some cereal. "I have to let him get one once in a while."

"You have to _let_ me? Let's get something straight here, kid…"

Daniel laughed again. "I just love you two. My mother would probably say it's like listening to my brother and me."

Morgan looked over at Reid and shrugged. "Hey, Reid's an only child, and I have two sisters. This guy's the closest thing to a brother I have. Who else can I pick on?"

"Thanks, Morgan. I think."

Morgan chuckled. "You know, Daniel, the first time my family met Reid it wasn't under the best of circumstances. The situation was a little tense. Now when I talk to my mom she asks me when I'm going to bring the kid back so she can feed him some more." He leaned forward. "You know both of my sisters actually think he's cute?"

Daniel looked over at Reid, who was now blushing and grinned. "Ah! Derek's sisters think Spencer is cute! How sweet is that?"

Reid stood up. "Um, I'm going to go take a shower. Try not to embarrass me too much while I'm gone." He rinsed out his coffee cup and headed down the hall with Morgan laughing behind him.

Thirty minutes later when Reid came back into the living room Morgan said, "Rossi called. Hotch is coming over with he and Prentiss. He has some more photos he wants to show Daniel."

"Where is Daniel?"

"Taking a shower in his bathroom," Morgan chuckled. "I think he's afraid of Hotch!"

"Seriously?"

"I am not afraid of Agent Hotchner," Daniel said as he walked down the hallway, wet hair slicked back. "I'm just, well, a little intimidated by him. That's all."

Morgan chuckled again as Reid commented, "Come on, Daniel. Hotch is okay. He just has to be stern."

"Well the way he looked at me the other night reminded me of how my dad looked at me whenever I did something wrong."

"Your dad pretty tough?" Morgan asked.

"_My_ dad? Ha! He's a big marshmallow! The looks he used to give me and my brother were more for my mom's benefit than ours. He would give us these stern looks whenever he thought my mom was watching just to let her think he was actually disciplining us. Then he let us do pretty much whatever we wanted." He laughed. "I guess we both turned out okay."

"Your brother is a student, right?" Reid asked as Morgan headed for his turn in the bathroom.

"Yeah, he's at Arizona State University studying business."

"Hey, ASU! Big party school," Morgan laughed as he went into the bathroom.

"Why am I not surprised he knows that?" Daniel asked.

/\

"Who are these people, Agent Hotchner?" Daniel asked, as he looked at another series of photographs.

"I'd like you to tell me first if you think you recognize anyone; then I'll tell you who they are. I don't want to prejudice whether you think you might have seen them beforehand."

Daniel sighed. "I just don't know, Agent Hotchner." He pointed at one picture and continued, "This guy looks a little familiar. But I still don't know where I might have seen him. The rest I just don't recognize."

Hotch took the photos when Daniel handed them back to him. "The man you recognized was a porter at your hotel. The reason I showed that one to you was because we discovered he had a criminal record. We're just checking every detail we can." He stood up. "Thank you. If I have any more questions I'll be in touch."

"Do you know anything about my stalking case?"

"Not yet. DNA test results are a lot faster these days; however, they won't come back for a few more days."

"Thank you, Agent Hotchner."

"See you tonight Daniel," Reid commented as he and Morgan left with Hotch.

/\

"Oh, this is _so_ much fun!" Garcia commented, as she sat with Emily watching Daniel skate.

"Nothing back at the BAU for you to do today, Penelope?" Rossi asked.

"Hotch gave me the day off," she retorted, looking over at him. She turned back to watch Daniel again and smiled. "I told him I had an appointment."

"Yes, an appointment to act silly," Emily laughed.

"Look who's talking, Miss tell everybody I was drooling over Daniel when she was doing the same thing herself!"

"I already apologized for that, Garcia!"

"Anyway, what's the harm in having a little fun?" Garcia smiled widely as she saw Daniel skating in her direction.

"How's my girl?" he asked, leaning on the wall.

"Fine," she giggled, which caused Rossi to shake his head.

"Bored yet?" Daniel teased.

"Never!"

"How about you, Emily?"

"Not yet!"

"I don't think we can say the same for Agent Rossi, though," Daniel commented.

"I'm great," Rossi responded. "Never better." He looked toward the door. "I think the reporter you are expecting is here."

For the next twenty minutes Garcia watched Daniel give an interview to a reporter from a national figure skating magazine regarding his decision on whether or not to continue skating another season, and then pose for several photographs. After the interview Daniel returned to the ice for more photos and then the reporter and photographer left after assuring Daniel the article would appear in the following month's issue. Daniel then sat down next to Garcia and nudged her shoulder. "So, Penelope, what do you think?"

"Of what?"

"The pictures we took. What do you think of the poses? Will they come out okay?"

"How could they not with you as the subject?"

"Oh, you're so sweet Penelope!" He leaned over and put his arm around her. "I'm so happy you're my fan."

"Me too!"

"When are you going to put on some skates and let me take you out on the ice?"

"Uh…I don't know! I can't skate, Daniel!"

"I can't dance, but I still told you I'd go dancing with you anytime you want."

"Yes, you did, but I think me falling on my butt on the ice would be a lot less graceful than you dancing in a club."

Daniel laughed. "You've obviously never seen me try to dance off the ice, Penelope. Don't forget I love you," he said, before kissing her on the cheek and then standing up.

Garcia blushed. She looked over to see Rossi shaking his head. "Some appointment," he commented.

/\

"You actually gave Garcia your cell phone number?" Reid laughed.

Daniel shrugged. "Sure, why not?" He looked over at Prentiss and Rossi as they prepared to leave for the evening. "Seriously, how much harm could it do? We're just having a little fun. I think Penelope knows that."

Prentiss shrugged. "You're right. She knows. She's just having a lot of fun right now."

"Good. So am I. I think Penelope is great."

"Are you really planning to go dancing with her?" Rossi asked.

"Yes, I am. I told her I would and I will."

"See you tomorrow," Prentiss said as she and Rossi left.

After Reid locked and dead bolted the door he turned to Daniel and asked, "So, we're watching '_Schindler's List_' tonight?"

"Derek said I don't have to stay in the house all the time. What if we actually go out somewhere?"

"I don't know, Daniel. I know he said that, but it might be asking for trouble. Where did you want to go?"

"We could grab something to eat, then there's this bar where I know a few people who are regulars there."

"A bar? Oh, no. Not a good idea, Daniel. I'm on duty here."

"So? Spencer, no one said you had to drink. I don't drink much myself. I seldom have more than two drinks. You can be designated driver and meet some new people while you're there."

Reid sighed. "I'm really not sure about this, Daniel."

"Come on, Spencer! Do you have any idea how bored I am? All I've been doing the last few days is skating and coming home. I haven't seen any of my friends, I haven't gone anywhere I normally would go, and I haven't worked on _any_ new projects, nothing…"

"Okay, okay, we'll go! "

"Great! Let me go get changed."

/\

Before going to the bar the two men had stopped for dinner at a Chinese restaurant. Reid couldn't help grinning when Daniel picked up a fork and didn't even try to use chopsticks. Of course that meant that _he_ didn't have to try and use them either. "What are you smiling at?" Daniel had asked him.

"The fact you aren't using chopsticks."

"Neither are you. What's your point?"

"I can't use them. However, for some reason, when I eat Chinese with my friends I feel compelled to try anyway. I usually embarrass myself in the process."

"So do I. That's why I'm not using them now." Reid laughed out loud. He and Daniel had found another thing they had in common; their inability to use chopsticks.

Now Reid stood flipping through the CDs available on the jukebox at the bar Daniel had chosen. He glanced over at the table where Daniel sat with three friends. The group was laughing at something one of them had said, and obviously having a good time. Reid shook his head and turned back to his perusal of the jukebox. He felt a tap on his right shoulder and turned to see the very attractive cocktail waitress standing there.

"Hey, you're a friend of Daniel's, right? Why aren't you sitting over there with him?"

"Just looking for some new music."

She handed him a glass. "Daniel sent this over. It's just coke. Not much fun being DD, is it?"

"DD?"

She laughed. "Designated Driver!"

"Oh, uh, yeah… I knew that!"

"Sure." She leaned against him and said, "Play A36. It's one of my favorites."

"Oh," Reid commented as he watched her walk away. He pushed the buttons and the sound of Garth Brooks singing about having friends in low places filled the bar. He couldn't help smiling. He wasn't a big country music fan, but it was hard to not like this particular song.

Twenty minutes later he was helping a very light-headed Daniel out into the car. "I can't believe how _bad_ I feel," Daniel groaned, as he leaned back against the seat.

"What did you expect?"

"Spencer, I hardly drank at all. I had one beer and one mixed drink. Nobody gets sick on that. I think I've been poisoned or something."

"Get real, Daniel."

"Spencer, what else could it be? I hardly drank at all. I'm never eating at that damn restaurant again!"

"I'm okay," Reid commented as he started the car.

"We didn't eat the same thing." He reached into his pocket and pulled out a piece of paper which he handed to Reid. "Here," he said, before closing his eyes.

"What's this?"

"Karyn's phone number. She asked me to give it to you. She said you had disappeared when she came back to talk to you."

"Karyn? The waitress?" Daniel nodded. "She's giving me her phone number?"

"Yes, genius. Can we go now, please?"

Reid pulled the vehicle out on to the street after tucking the phone number into his pocket. After only a few minutes Daniel asked him to pull over. He had to pull over three more times before they arrived back at Daniel's house. "My coach is going to kill me," Daniel moaned as Reid helped him into the house. "I'll never make it to practice tomorrow."

"You mean later today. Remember whose idea this was," Reid commented.

"Yeah, remind me I'm an idiot while I'm dying!" Daniel complained as he collapsed on to the couch.

"Well, it is your own fault!"

"Shut up, Spencer!"

"Do you need anything?" Reid asked, fighting back a grin.

Daniel kicked off his shoes. "No, just leave me to die in peace, Spencer."

After checking all the doors and windows, Reid grabbed a blanket from Daniel's room and placed it over Daniel who had already fallen asleep. He shook his head before going into the extra bedroom to get ready for bed.

/\/\/\/\

7


	7. Chapter 7

**Disclaimer:** See my profile.

Spoilers for '_Revelations_' (Season Two) and '_Elephant's Memory_'(Season Three).

/\/\/\/\

'_**A Force of Nature**_'

Chapter Seven

/\/\/\/\

Reid walked down the hallway yawning. As he passed into the living room he saw Daniel sitting at the kitchen table with his head resting on his arms. "You okay?" he asked, concerned.

"No, Spencer. I'm dying."

"Oh, come on, Daniel!"

With a little effort Daniel raised his head and looked at Reid. "Spencer, a couple years ago I had to have an I.V. put in because I was so dehydrated from a virus. I lost eight pounds in a few days. I was in the hospital that time and I think I felt better than this."

"Maybe you should go to the hospital this time, then."

"No thanks!"

"If you feel that bad…"

"No way," Daniel interrupted. "I'm going to practice today."

"What? You told me before you fell asleep you weren't going and that your coach was going to be upset. If you're that sick you should not only not go to practice, but also see a doctor."

"I hate hospitals, Spencer."

"No one likes hospitals. Go to your regular doctor, then."

"I don't like doctors either. Besides, she's out of town right now."

"Daniel, if it's food poisoning it could be dangerous."

With a little effort Daniel stood up. "Good. Maybe I'll die from it then and be out of my misery."

"That's not funny!"

"I wasn't laughing."

Reid shook his head as he watched Daniel walk into the bedroom. A few moments later he heard the shower start running. He walked into the kitchen and poured some cereal and milk into a bowl. By the time Daniel came back out of his bedroom Reid had eaten, taken a shower, dressed and was sitting in the living room with Prentiss and Morgan. "Geez," he commented. "I was starting to get worried!"

"Reid told us you weren't feeling well," Morgan said. "You look pale. Maybe you shouldn't go to the rink today."

"Derek, I would rather risk death than get yelled at in Russian today by my coach."

"But, won't she be yelling at you anyway if you're too sick to do everything?" Emily asked.

"I'll give her my sad eyed deer in the headlights look. Sometimes it makes her feel sorry for me and go easy for a while."

"What if it doesn't?"

"I'm pretty good at it. Although, she's also getting pretty good at seeing through it."

Morgan laughed as Reid shook his head and stood up. "Bye guys. I'm heading out. See you tonight, Daniel. _If_ you're still alive, that is!"

"Thanks a _lot_, Spencer!"

Morgan laughed again. "Daniel, I have more good news for you. Hotch called me this morning. He's coming over again this afternoon to talk to you."

"Oh, great! Just what I need today. What do I get to do? Look at more pictures?"

"He didn't say. He just wanted me to let you know he's coming by."

"Great," Daniel sighed.

"Come on, Daniel. Hotch is okay!" Prentiss insisted.

"If you say so."

/\

"How did your training session go today?" Hotch asked Daniel, as the two sat down at the kitchen table.

"It was very tiring. I haven't felt well all day."

"I'm sorry to hear that. Maybe you'll feel better tomorrow."

"I hope so. What can I do for you, Agent Hotchner?"

"You want to get right to the point, I see. First thing is I wanted to let you know that, although we did lift DNA from the envelopes your letters came in, there is no match to anyone in any of the national databases."

"You already analyzed the DNA? I thought that took weeks or something. Does no match mean they've never committed a crime or what?"

"Preliminary results can be obtained in as little as three to five days now. No match either means no criminal record or the crime committed did not require the criminal to provide a DNA sample."

"Do you need a key, Agent Hotchner?"

"Excuse me?"

"I made keys for Spencer and for Derek and Emily so they don't have to knock and someone doesn't have to go answer the door. You've been around here a lot, so I thought maybe you needed one also."

Hotch stared at him. "No thank you."

"What else did you want to tell me?"

"Based on interviews with all of the people who have been threatened, we believe whatever you all have in common happened sometime during the last two days you were in Bermuda. Those two days are the only two days everyone has in common since you didn't all leave or arrive on the same days. We need to ask you once again if you can remember anything that happened during that time period that might be significant."

"No, I told you already, I can't remember anything."

"Okay, I know you're not feeling well, so I'll leave it at that for now. Please let Morgan or Prentiss know if you think of anything."

"Okay, I will. Thank you."

/\

"Reid, what are you doing?" Morgan asked.

Reid looked up from the cushion he had been searching under. "I'm looking for something. I think I might have left it here when I went home this morning."

"What are you looking for? I can help you look."

"Uh, no that's okay. I can find it myself."

"Okay, kid, whatever. " He grinned. "So… Daniel told us you went out last night?"

"Yes, we did."

"And a pretty waitress gave you her phone number?"

Reid looked at him and sighed. "Yes, Morgan, she did. Something else for you to tease me about, I guess."

Morgan laughed. "So, did you call her yet?"

"I didn't have to. _She_ called _me_ this morning. Daniel had given her my cell phone number."

"And?"

"And what?"

"What happened, genius? What did you talk about? Are you going to see her?"

"It's none of your business what we talked about. And yes, I'm going to see her."

"When?"

Reid looked at Morgan in exasperation. "When I have time. I'm kind of busy right now. She understood that."

"Come on, kid. Don't let this job control your personal life."

Reid looked at him again. "I know you worry about me, Morgan. I appreciate that. We exchanged IM and email addresses. When we can arrange it, we'll get together. Until then we'll keep in touch. I only met her yesterday."

"Okay, okay!"

Prentiss came out of the bathroom and announced she was ready to go. "Daniel is in his bedroom sleeping," she added.

"Is he still sick?" Reid asked.

"Sick and exhausted."

"It's his own fault, really."

"Thank you so much for the sympathy," Daniel said, walking up behind Prentiss.

"You look like crap, Daniel!" Reid commented.

"Like I said, thank you so much, Spencer."

Prentiss grimaced and looked at Morgan. "Time for us to go, guys."

As soon as the door was closed and locked behind the two agents, Reid headed for the bedroom. "Spencer…"

"Not now, Daniel. I need to find something."

"But Spencer," Daniel said, following Reid down the hallway. Before he got to the bedroom door Reid came out and walked past him toward the living room.

"Okay, now was I in here last night?" he said, almost to himself.

"Spencer, listen to me."

"What?"

"Is this what you're looking for?" Reid looked at Daniel as he held out his precious coin. He reached out his hand and Daniel dropped it into his palm. "I found it on the living room floor a little while ago when we came back from the rink. I thought it was just a coin you used to do your magic tricks like you were showing me the other night. But it isn't, is it?"

Reid looked at him. "No, it isn't," he said quietly.

"That's a sobriety medallion, Spencer." Reid nodded. "So how long has it been?"

Reid looked down at the coin. "This is my one-year medallion. I've had it for a little over two years now, so I'm going on three and a half years." He looked over at Daniel. "I've never lost it before. It's always in my pocket."

"Congratulations," Daniel said, before turning around to head back toward his bedroom.

"Wait…aren't you going to ask me why I have this?"

"No, I'm not. I know what it represents, but it's none of my business. If you want to tell me about it, you will."

"For a few moments the two men looked at each other. Then, as Daniel started to turn away, Reid spoke. "It happened after a case."

Daniel turned back toward him. "I'm listening." He walked over to the kitchen table and sat down in one of the chairs.

Reid sat down at the opposite side of the table. He flipped the coin and turned it over in his hand repeatedly. "I was kidnapped by a serial killer we were chasing. It wasn't a pleasant experience, to say the least. And one of the things he did to me was to inject me with drugs several times. By the time the ordeal was over, I was addicted. I needed the drugs to forget."

"You were kidnapped by a serial killer?"

Reid nodded. "Yes," he said softly,

"What drug was it?"

"Dilaudid. But Hankel, that was the suspect's name, cut it with a psychedelic, so I hallucinated when I was injected."

"Spencer, addicts use Dilaudid as a heroin substitute."

"I know that, Daniel."

"How long were you on this stuff?"

"A few months. Maybe four or so."

"Your team members know about this?"

"Rossi wasn't around then. The others know about my kidnapping. In fact, they had to watch some of what happened to me via a live feed. They know I was using afterward, though no one ever accused me. They know I quit, but they don't know how because I did it on my own, and they don't know about Beltway Clean Cops. You're the first person outside of that group I've ever told."

"I told you already, Spencer. I'm a good listener. I'm listening now, for as long as you want to keep talking about it."

"Thank you, Daniel," Reid said softly. 

/\

Reid and Daniel were still sitting at the kitchen table the next morning when Morgan and Prentiss arrived. "Hey guys," Reid said, standing up from the table and stretching.

Morgan looked at him. "You guys were up all night?"

Daniel stood up. "Yes. We've been up all night talking. I'm a good listener, he's a good listener. We've been listening to each other."

"How about that, Reid found somebody to ramble on to who rambles right back," Morgan laughed.

"Okay. And they're a little punch drunk, I would say," Prentiss commented.

"Right, punch drunk. And we talked about all kinds of things. And we're both so tired we're punch drunk just like Emily said," Daniel pointed out. "And it's a good thing my coach gave me the day off because I would be even more useless today than I was yesterday."

"And you were pretty useless yesterday," Prentiss laughed.

"Too bad for Reid, though, because Hotch wants him to come by the BAU after he leaves here."

"Why?"

"I don't know; when he called he didn't say. He only said I should tell you he wanted you to stop by before you went home."

"Great. I'm taking a shower and going to bed, and you get to go talk to Agent Hotchner." Daniel patted Reid on the shoulder. "I think I'm going to like my day more than you like yours."

/\

Reid knocked on the door to Hotch's office. Hotch looked up and said, "Come in, Reid. Have a seat." He gestured toward a chair across from his desk.

Reid looked from Hotch to Rossi, who was sitting in a chair to the side. "Is something wrong, Hotch?"

"Reid, the night before last, did you and Daniel Meier go out to a restaurant for dinner?"

"Yes, we did. Why?"

"And then you went on to a bar?" Rossi asked.

"I didn't drink. I was on duty."

"And Daniel became sick?"

"Yes, I had to help him out to the car. He only had two drinks so we figured it was food poisoning, from the Chinese restaurant we had gone to. Well, he did anyway. I tried to get him to either go to a doctor or the hospital; but he can be pretty stubborn. He wouldn't go."

"And you didn't think it was necessary to let me or Rossi or Morgan know he might have been poisoned?"

"You mean deliberately?"

"Reid, Daniel Meier has at least three stalkers, one of which has made death threats toward him. In addition he also has been threatened in the murder case. Someone _could_ have tried to poison him deliberately," Rossi said.

"I didn't think…"

"That's the problem, Reid, you didn't _think_. And you should have thought." He leaned forward. "What it all boils down to is you're off the security detail."

Reid stared at him. "What?"

"You're off the detail. Rossi will take over for you tonight. Tomorrow you will come into the office and work on files and paperwork unless I tell you to do something else."

"Hotch…"

"Go home." When Reid opened his mouth as if to say something else, Hotch repeated, "_Go home_, Reid."

Reid stood up, grabbed his messenger bag and walked out of the office. Without even looking at his desk he headed down the hallway and to the elevator. When the door didn't open immediately upon his pressing the button he headed for the stairwell. "Reid!" Garcia called, spotting her friend. "Hey, Reid!" She stared after him, confused as to why he didn't respond.

/\/\/\/\

A/N: I had _such_ a hard time with this chapter. I actually went ahead and wrote Chapter Eight before I finished this one.

A/N; .

8


	8. Chapter 8

**Disclaimer: ** See my profile.

/\/\/\/\

'_**A Force of Nature**_**'**

**Chapter Eight**

**/\/\/\/\**

Morgan, Prentiss and Daniel stepped off the elevator and into the BAU sanctuary. "I can't believe I'm doing this," Morgan commented.

Daniel looked at his F.B.I. visitor's badge. "Can I keep this thing?" he asked. He looked up to see Garcia coming down the hallway in their direction. "Hey, Penelope!"

"Don't you even talk to me!" she retorted.

"What?" Daniel replied, shocked.

"You heard me!" She continued on her way into her office, shutting the door behind her.

Daniel looked at Prentiss. "Emily, what did I do?"

"I…I don't know," she answered in confusion, as Morgan chuckled.

A few minutes later the trio was in Hotch's office. "Agent Hotchner, it was my idea to come here. I asked if I could speak to you. Please don't blame Derek and Emily." Hotch looked from Morgan to Prentiss, and then at Daniel. "Uh, I mean please don't blame Agent Morgan and Agent Prentiss."

"I really do not care if you call them by their first names."

"Okay, well… I wanted to speak to you about Spencer." Hotch sighed. "It was my idea to go out to eat and then to the bar. Spencer had to go along as part of his job, right?"

"Daniel…"

"I feel like it's my fault Spencer got in trouble."

"Daniel, Agent Reid was removed from the protection detail. That's all. There will be no further consequences to his actions."

"They were _my_ actions. It was _my_ idea to go out the other night."

"It doesn't matter whose idea it was."

"It matters to _me_."

"Reid was pulled off the detail because he failed to inform me you became ill after going out; not _because_ you went out."

Daniel shook his head. "I'm sorry, what?"

"While it would have been preferable for you to stay in the house, you weren't required to do so. You went out, you became ill. For all we knew you could have been deliberately poisoned."

"I wasn't."

Hotch sighed again. "That's _not_ the point, Daniel. We should have been informed of the possibility, and Reid failed to do that. That's all there is to it."

"Agent Hotchner…"

"That's _it_," Hotch said firmly. Daniel stared at Hotch for a moment, and then turned and walked out of his office, followed by Prentiss. "Morgan," Hotch began.

Morgan raised his hands in a gesture of surrender. "I know, I know!" He turned and left the office. Out in the hallway he spotted Prentiss. "Where's Daniel?"

"Garcia's office."

Morgan raised an eyebrow. "Oh, I have to see this."

Daniel sat in a swivel desk chair in Garcia's office while she pretended to ignore his presence. "Come on, Penelope, talk to me."

"No, I'm mad at you."

"Can you at least tell me what I did wrong?"

"You should know what you did."

Daniel leaned forward. "I don't."

Garcia turned to face him. "You got my baby in trouble with Hotch."

"I did what?"

"Reid, you got Reid in trouble with Hotch!"

"Not on purpose!"

"Oh, that's just great! You got him in trouble accidentally?"

"I'm sorry!"

"Well, it's a little late for that, isn't it?"

"Penelope, no one feels worse about this than I do. There must be something I can do to make it up to you."

"No, there is _not_. I'm so over you."

"Come on, Penelope," Daniel implored, propping his feet up on the desk.

Garcia shoved his feet off and said, "Keep your feet _off_ my desk!"

Daniel turned toward the door at the sound of Morgan's snicker. He saw both Morgan and Prentiss just outside the door with their hands over their mouths as they tried not to laugh. He made a face at them and then turned back toward Garcia, who was trying to look as if she was working. He swiveled back and forth on the chair a few times as though he was thinking. He suddenly leaned forward. "Penelope…"

"Will you _please_ go away?" she interrupted.

"You want me to go away?"

"Yes, please!"

"Oh, you don't really mean that!"

"Yes, I do! I keep telling you to go away but you're just not listening."

"That's because I don't believe you really want me to go."

"I _do_."

"Come on, Penelope," Daniel said, as he wadded up a piece of paper into a ball and threw it directly at Morgan after he heard him snicker again. The ball hit Morgan in the shoulder. Daniel stood up and balanced himself on the arm of Garcia's chair.

"Are you still here? I was hoping you had left."

"You're breaking my heart, Penelope!"

"Good! You deserve it!" Daniel leaned over and put his arm around Garcia. "Stop that!"

Daniel looked down at her. "Why?"

"Because."

Daniel stood up and walked right in front of her, blocking her view of her computer screens. "Daniel, you're in the way!"

"So?"

"So, move!"

"No," Daniel said, sitting on the desk with his arms folded. He looked at Garcia with what he hoped was his best sad eyed deer expression and finally saw her relax.

"Okay, okay! I forgive you! Now will you please get out of here for real and let me get back to work?"

Daniel bounced to his feet, and then leaned over and hugged Garcia. "I love you, Penelope!"

"I love you too! Now, go already!" Daniel kissed her on the cheek and then on her neck. She giggled and then smacked his hand. "Stop, Daniel! Go, please!"

"Now I've seen everything," Morgan commented as he Prentiss and Daniel walked away from Garcia's office.

"This is where we have our desks," Prentiss commented, pointing to the bullpen.

"Can I see yours?"

"Sure," she continued, walking down the steps and leading him to her desk. "This is mine, this is Morgan's, and that one over there is Reid's."

Daniel looked at all three desks before commenting, "Morgan, look how organized Spencer's desk is compared to yours." Prentiss laughed at his statement.

Hotch chose just that moment to come out of his office. "I see you're still here."

"We were just showing Daniel our desks, Hotch," Morgan said. "I think we're done doing that. Uh, let's go guys." Hotch shook his head as he watched them go.

/\

Later that evening Daniel sat on his couch going over some papers. "Agent Rossi, would you _please_ get that damn pizza out of here? The smell is making me crazy!"

"Have some then. It tastes great."

"I can't. It throws my whole training regimen out of whack."

"So do a couple of extra sit-ups or something."

Daniel sighed, stood up, walked over to the table and sat down. "You're killing me with this," he said, picking a piece of pizza out of the box.

"What's that stuff you're working on?"

"I'm looking over a contract for a skating show in New York City. The other stuff is college applications."

"You're going to school? Good for you!"

"Yes, I promised my dad I would consider going back to school once the Olympics were over. I dropped out six years ago after two semesters. I'm not sure this is such a hot idea, though."

"Why?"

"I don't know. It kind of scares me a little, thinking about all this."

"What are you thinking of studying?"

"Russian Literature. And thanks to Spencer, the other night I registered for a test next Saturday that measures your knowledge of a foreign language. He was supposed to help me practice my vocabulary. Now he's not here, and what am I supposed to do? I need that test to get into one of these programs. You have to have a working knowledge of the language to even _apply_ to the program I want." He picked up some papers and waved them. "See these? Oxford and Columbia. I must have been insane to let Spencer talk me into trying to get into those two schools!"

"Close to London or New York City. Quite a choice you have there, kid. So, the program is _in _Russian? It's not studying the literature in English?"

"No, the entire program is taught in the Russian language."

"Weren't you an honor student in high school?"

"Yes."

"Don't you speak Russian?"

"Yes."

"So what's the problem?

"I graduated high school in 2002. It's been a while since I've been in school. I'm scared of going back. And then I've got to be able to pay for it. If I skate less, I make less money, you know?"

"Reid said you're helping your parents and putting your brother through school along with paying for your skating and your own expenses."

Daniel shrugged. "It's no big deal. It's my family, and my dad has a heart condition that keeps him from working."

Rossi looked at him for a minute, and then reached over to take the applications from Daniel. "I really think you need a break from all this. Do you play poker?"

/\

Reid was sitting in his living room reading through a stack of books when his phone rang. "Reid," he said automatically.

"_Reid, its Hotch. I need you to go to Delaware tomorrow and talk to Daniel Meier's parents. They'll be expecting you."_

"You don't want me coming into the office to work on files then?"

"_No, I need you to go to Delaware. I had JJ send you a package by special messenger with all the information you'll need. You should receive it within the hour. You can pick up a bureau vehicle and drive because it's only about 150 miles to the Meier house."_

"They'll be expecting the F.B.I. then?"

"_They're expecting you personally. I had JJ give them your name."_

"Okay."

"_And Reid… Daniel Meier was at the BAU today. Basically he came to stick up for you. I thought I would let you know." _

"Thank you, Hotch."

"_Get some sleep tonight, Reid. Good night."_

"Good night, Hotch."

**/\/\/\/\**

6


	9. Chapter 9

/\/\/\/\

Disclaimer: See my profile.

/\/\/\/\

'_**A Force of Nature**_**'**

Chapter Nine

/\/\/\/\

"How did last night go?" Morgan asked Rossi.

"Great. We played poker half the night. He won almost every hand."

Morgan laughed out loud. "Did you play for money?"

"Peanuts."

"Seriously?" Prentiss asked.

"Daniel ended up with almost the entire jar. And he started calling me David instead of Agent Rossi."

"Hey," Daniel said, coming out of his bedroom and into the living room. "I just got a call from my mother. Agent Hotchner is sending Spencer over the house to interview her and my father today."

"At least he won't be stuck at the office looking through files like Hotch told him originally," Rossi commented.

"Well you may not see him for a while."

"Why?"

"My mother won't let him leave the house until he's eaten enough food to gain at least twenty pounds."

"Sounds like my mother," Morgan commented as Rossi chuckled and then waved as he headed out the front door.

"See you David," Daniel called to him.

"Reid could stand to gain a few pounds," Prentiss commented.

Daniel nodded. "My mom will try to feed him, I'm sure. With my brother in Arizona, me here and my dad on a restricted diet she doesn't have anyone she can feed big meals to. Actually, since he had to stop working my dad does most of the cooking because my mom still works as an interior decorator. But she misses being able to cook the family a meal."

/\

Reid pulled the SUV up to the curb in front of a modest, well-kept house and switched the engine off. He grabbed his messenger bag and climbed out of the vehicle. As he approached the front door he pulled his badge out of his pocket and then rang the doorbell. After a few seconds a slender man of average height, with graying dark hair who looked like an older version of Daniel opened the door a few inches. Reid smiled and said, "Mr. Meier? I'm F.B.I. Special Agent Spencer Reid." He flipped open his badge for him to see.

"I'm Alex Meier. Please come in, Agent Reid," he said opening the door further and gesturing for Reid to come in. "Caroline, the F.B.I. agent is here!"

Reid smiled as a tall brown haired woman in her forties came into the room. "Agent Reid, this is my wife Caroline Meier. Caroline, this is Agent Spencer Reid."

"Oh, yes! Agent Jareau said you would be coming. And Daniel said he knew you."

"That's right. We know each other."

"Please come in and sit down." Reid followed Daniel's parents into their living room where his father sat on a couch and Reid sat on a love seat opposite him. "You've come a little ways, Agent Reid. You much be thirsty. Can I bring you something to drink? A coke perhaps?"

"Uh, sure. Thank you. A coke would be fine."

"How about a snack? Would you like something to eat? You must also be hungry."

"Uh, well…"

"Caroline, really!"

"I'll bring a little something with the coke."

Mr. Meier smiled at Reid when his wife left the room. "If it was closer to dinner time she would probably be trying to feed you a meal. She thinks it's her duty to take care of everyone, Agent Reid. And, without her two babies here, well…" He shrugged. "Anyway, I hope you don't mind."

"It's okay Mr. Meier," Reid smiled.

"Please, call me Alex. What can we help you with?"

"We're still trying to determine what, other than just being in Bermuda at the same time Daniel and fourteen other people have in common. We've been able to determine the only time everyone was there was the last two days of your visit. Basically, we are trying to determine what may have happened during those two days that everyone has in common."

Alex sighed. "I don't know. I mean, the three of us were together practically every second we were there. And we haven't been threatened." He laughed. "It's funny, but Daniel's brother couldn't take the time away from school to come along; so there was poor Daniel on a trip to a tropical paradise with his parents. Now what young single man in his twenties wants to do that?" Reid couldn't help smiling at his words.

Just then Daniel's mother came back into the room carrying a tray with three drinks and a large platter of brownies and cookies on it. "Thank You, Mrs. Meier," Reid said as she put a drink in front of him and the platter on the table.

"Oh, please call me Caroline. After all, you're a friend of our son's, right?"

"Uh, yes I guess I am. So you're saying you were together the entire time."

"Oh, yes," Caroline said. "It got to the point where we were actually getting sick of each other. Daniel hasn't been able to spend much time with us this past year or so because he was training for the Olympics. So he was determined on this trip we were going to spend all our time together, even if it killed us."

Reid couldn't help smiling again. He didn't have the same type of family memories that Daniel and his parents had. Since he got along so well with Daniel he enjoyed hearing about _his_ family, the same way he enjoyed hearing about Morgan's family. "So, there wasn't any time you were apart then? No time when he might have spoken to other people when you weren't around?"

"Other than when he went down to the restaurant to get a table before we were ready to come down, I can't think of anything," Caroline said.

"Wait a minute…" Alex said, looking over at his wife. "The last day, didn't he go down to the beach to watch the sunrise?"

"That's right! He did! I had forgotten about that." She looked at Reid. "Daniel got up early the last morning we were there because he wanted to watch the sunrise. Neither of us wanted to get up that early, even for a tropical sunrise. So he went down to the beach by himself. Do you think it could be important?"

"Maybe, if he saw something and didn't realize he saw it. Or if someone thinks he and the others saw something, but they really didn't. Either way this may definitely help with the investigation. Did Daniel take any pictures that morning?"

"I'm not sure," Alex said. "I know he shot some video."

"Is the video at his house in Georgetown?"

"No, we have it here. He transferred it on to DVD for us a few weeks ago."

"May I see it?"

"Of course," Alex said as he stood up to look for the DVD in question.

Reid watched the entire video not quite sure what he was looking for. Then he realized the problem might not involve the video itself, but rather what someone else _thought_ was on the video. "Excuse me, I need to make a quick phone call," he said as he got up from the chair. He walked into the other room to complete his call, realizing they might actually have a lead in this case. Upon speaking to Hotch Reid suggested all the remaining possible victims be re-interviewed and specifically asked about whether they had gone out to the beach that same morning. Hotch asked if it would be possible to get a copy of the footage Daniel had shot. Reid walked back into the living room. "Mr. Meier, uh Alex, may I use your Internet service to upload and send this video to my colleagues?"

"Of course. The computer is in our home office," he said, standing up. "I'll show you where it is."

/\

"Oh my God!" Garcia said, wide-eyed as her feet slipped on the ice. "You better _not_ let go of me!"

"Don't worry, Penelope, I won't," Daniel replied, laughing.

"I don't know how anyone can even _stand_ on these things, let alone walk, or land jumps and do spins!"

"You just have to have natural balance to be able to do it."

Garcia shrieked and grabbed Daniel's arm tighter as she slipped again and nearly fell. "I'm telling you, Daniel; if I fall I'm taking you down with me!"

Daniel laughed. "I'll try not to let you fall then." The words were barely out of his mouth before Garcia's left foot started going forward while her right foot went backward. She stumbled briefly, shrieked and grabbed on to Daniel with both hands. Daniel's efforts to hold her upright quickly failed and the two of them went down on to the ice in a heap, bringing immediate laughs from both Prentiss and Morgan.

"Please tell me you got that on video?" Morgan said, looking at Prentiss who had been shooting Daniel and Garcia with a small digital video camera.

"Of course I did," Prentiss laughed.

Daniel got to his knees to help Garcia who was sitting on the ice looking stunned. "Come on, Penelope." Garcia held on to Daniel with both hands while he helped her get into a kneeling position. Then he stood up and carefully helped her get to her feet. "Okay, now we'll just start moving forward a little again." Garcia's eyes were open wide as the two of them started moving again. Once again her feet began to separate and when Daniel tried to grab her she went down on to the ice again, pulling him down on top of her.

Morgan burst out laughing and remarked, "If I didn't know better I'd think she did that one on purpose!" His comment brought a snicker from Prentiss.

"Okay," Daniel remarked, as he got back on his feet. "Let's try this again."

"No thanks, I give up!" Garcia said as Daniel helped her to her feet again.

"No, come on. Let's try this again, okay?" Garcia gave a short nod as once again Daniel began to help her move forward on the ice. "Penelope, if you hold on with only one hand I think it would be easier. We'll just skate side by side." With a scared expression Garcia slowly let go of Daniel with her right hand and just held on with her left hand. Daniel slid his right arm around her waist and pulled her left arm around his waist. "See, now isn't that better?"

"Much better," she smiled, looking over at him as the two began to slowly skate around the rink side by side.

"Stop laughing, Emily! You're next!" Daniel called. "And you too, Derek!"

"I don't think so!" Prentiss replied.

"Not in this lifetime," Morgan chimed in.

"You'll be skating with my training partner, Olivia."

"You mean the tall blond who was out there on the ice with you yesterday?"

"She's the one."

"Hmm…" Morgan looked over at Prentiss. "Maybe this isn't such a bad idea!"

"Right. Until you fall on your butt and she laughs at you!"

"Derek Morgan does _not_ fall on his butt, and women do _not_ laugh at him."

"Right."

Just then Morgan's cell phone rang. "Morgan."

"_Morgan, its Hotch_."

"What's up?"

"_Reid may have found something. How soon can you come by the BAU_?"

"We're in Rockville right now. When you figure the distance and the fact Daniel and Garcia have skates on, I'd say at least a couple hours until we could get there."

"_Ask Daniel to cut the practice short. I want all of you back here as soon as you can get here. We need Garcia's expertise, and we need Daniel here as well._"

"I'll get on it right away," Morgan closed the phone and waved at Garcia and Daniel. "Come on guys, Hotch needs us all back at the BAU as soon as possible."

/\

"Admit it, Derek, you were saved by the bell, so to speak," Daniel commented as they headed toward Quantico with Morgan driving.

"I was not. I'm not afraid of going ice skating with a beautiful blond partner. In fact I'm disappointed I wasn't able to do it today."

"Right. So you'll skate with Olivia tomorrow then?"

"Yeah…sure!" Morgan replied with far less enthusiasm than he had shown earlier.

"Ah, come on Derek!" Garcia joked from the back seat where she sat with Daniel. "If I can do it so can you!" Prentiss snickered. Garcia smiled at Daniel and hooked her arm through his. "Of course, _I_ have an excellent teacher."

"Ah, thank you, Penelope! That's so sweet!"

Morgan shook his head and looked over at Prentiss who was trying not to smile.

/\

Morgan, Prentiss, Garcia and Daniel stepped off the elevator just as Rossi and Hotch walked out of Hotch's office. "Good timing. Can we see you all in the conference room, please?"

"Me too?" Daniel asked.

"Yes, all of you please." They walked into the conference room and saw JJ setting folders down around the table. "Reid is on his way back right now. He'll probably be at least an hour and a half yet." Hotch turned to look at Daniel. "We need you to look at some video and answer some more questions. This was the quickest and easiest way to take care of it."

"Okay," Daniel answered, sitting down in the chair Hotch indicated. He looked around the room and commented, "I feel like I'm in the Bat Cave or something."

"What's going on?" Morgan asked.

"Daniel, your last day in Bermuda did you get up early and go out to watch the sunrise?" Hotch asked.

Daniel looked at him, puzzled. "I don't remember… Wait! I did!" He looked at Hotch. "How could I forget something like that? I got up at 4:30 am that morning and went out to the beach without my parents to watch the sunrise because I didn't know when I might have another chance."

"We've already had agents in the other cities speak to the other victims. Every one of you was out there on the beach that morning to watch the sunrise."

"And you shot video of it?" Rossi asked.

"Yes, I did. I remember now. I don't have it though; it's at my parents' house."

"I know. That's what Reid found out while he was at their house today. He uploaded a copy to us." Hotch turned to Garcia and continued. "We'll need you to run your facial recognition software on one part of the video if you can. We already have people looking at copies of the video, but we'd like you to work your magic if you can." Hotch nodded at JJ who pushed a button on her remote to start the video on the screen mounted on the wall.

The group watched as the video began. "I stink as a cameraman," Daniel remarked as the images bounced on the screen. Most of the video was dark until the sun slowly started to creep up over the Eastern horizon. The video slowly began to pan the group of people on the beach with Daniel. '_These are all the other wackos who got up early to watch the sun come up_,' he could be heard commenting before laughing. At one point in the video he had used the telephoto feature on the lens to zoom in on some people standing several yards away near a bonfire that had been built. Sometime later he could be heard saying '_Pretty boring, huh? That's all_,' before the video camera shut off.

Morgan shrugged. "I don't get it. It's just a sunrise. What's the big deal?"

"JJ, go back to the part where Daniel used the zoom feature." Hotch turned to Garcia. "That's the part of the video we'll want you to take a look at." She nodded. Hotch turned to Daniel. "Do you remember why you used the zoom at that point?"

Daniel shook his head. "No, not really." He shifted in his chair and looked a little embarrassed. "Now that I think about it, I guess there might have a girl I was looking at."

"It's not really important why, I suppose." They turned back to the screen as JJ replayed the section of the video that had been captured on zoom lens.

Morgan leaned forward. "Wait… The man to the left of the bonfire…" He turned to look at JJ. "Rewind please and go back to the start of this part." As the same section ran again he looked at it intently and then turned to Hotch. "That looks like Dolby Carriol. He's been a fugitive for over a year now. He's on the Ten Most Wanted List."

"Bingo," Rossi commented.

/\

Reid looked over at the passenger side of the front seat of the SUV and smiled. Daniel's mother had insisted on giving him a few things to take back with him. He had two bags, each containing a box of cookies, a box of brownies, some cornbread, and a large container of vegetable beef soup, all of it homemade; one bag for him and one bag for Daniel. Caroline had insisted her son didn't eat enough and made it clear she didn't like his training regimen. Therefore she had asked Reid to give Daniel his bag and also insisted Reid should have one himself. He supposed it was her not so subtle way of telling him _he_ needed to eat more. He ate plenty, but even his own mother thought he was too thin.

Suddenly he heard a loud popping noise, almost like a small explosion. The vehicle suddenly started to skid to the left, and he was having a hard time controlling it. He wrestled with the steering wheel as the brakes squealed and he tried to steer the vehicle in the direction of the skid as he had always been told to do. The vehicle swerved into the lane to his left and traveled across the far left lane and onto the shoulder before he was able to get it under control and steer the vehicle to a stop. Shaken, he sat for a few moments with his hands resting on the steering wheel as traffic continued to whiz by him. Sighing, Reid climbed out of the SUV and took a look at it. "Great," he said out loud when he saw the shredded tire on the right rear side of the vehicle. He had experienced a blowout. '_I'm already in trouble, and_ _now I'm going to be late again and Hotch is going to kill me_." He flipped open his phone to call the auto club to come and change a tire for him.

/\/\/\/\

A/N: So, on the show, who is an 'SSA' (Supervisory Special Agent), and who is just an 'SA' (Special Agent)? I've heard, for example, both Prentiss and Reid now referred to as 'SSA', but I'm confused because I've also heard them referred to as just 'SA' in recent episodes. So when did they become 'SSA'?

A/N: I tweaked this just a little bit later the same day I originally posted it, then reposted it. No major changes

11


	10. Chapter 10

/\/\/\/\

'_**A Force of Nature**_**'**

Chapter Ten

/\/\/\/\

The elevator doors opened and Reid rushed into the BAU. "Reid! Hey, Reid!" he heard Garcia call.

"Hey, Garcia," he said, slightly out of breath due to his sprint from the parking garage. Spotting Daniel with her he added, "Hey Daniel."

"What happened to you?" Garcia asked, looking Reid up and down.

"I had a blowout way out on US 50, and I had to change a tire." He sighed. "Hotch is _so_ going to ream me. I was already in hot water with him."

"I'm sorry about that…"

"Daniel, it wasn't your fault. Hotch was right to do what he did. It was the latest in a long line of my screw ups." He looked toward the conference room. "I've got to get in there." He handed Daniel one of the bags he was carrying. "Your mom wanted me to give you this. What are you two up to, anyway?"

"Daniel got dragged here to answer some questions and look at the video because we were all together at the rink. After he was done they started doing their profiling thing and he got stuck hanging out with me."

"Penelope, you _know_ I don't mind getting stuck with you."

"Ah, thank you! What's in the bag?"

"Oh, it's one of my mom's care packages," he laughed. "I keep telling her I can't eat all this stuff."

"She doesn't like your training regimen," Reid grinned.

"I know."

"She gave me the same stuff she gave you. Your dad said if it had been later in the day she would probably have been trying to feed me dinner." Daniel laughed. "I have to go," Reid insisted.

"Wait!" Garcia said.

"Penelope, I don't have time right now."

"I need to ask you something. I'll be quick! Daniel took me skating today. Prentiss shot some video of it."

"That's great. I'll have to look at it later."

"Reid! I fell on my butt twice! I can deal with us seeing it, but Prentiss and Morgan will have it all over the Bureau and maybe even on YouTube and goodness knows where."

"What do you want me to do?"

Garcia held up an SD disk. "I want you to use your magic fingers to switch this blank disk for the one in Prentiss's video camera."

Reid looked at her. "Suppose they've already uploaded the video?"

"They might have," Daniel said. "But they've been working since we got back here. They probably haven't had a chance yet."

Reid nodded. "Okay, I'll try it."

/\

"I don't understand it," Rossi was saying. "Carriol obviously had the means to find out who all these people were, as well as where they lived. He already took out three of them. Why not just take out all fifteen? Why risk being found out? Why expend the energy, the effort and the money to play this elaborate game?"

"For fun," Reid remarked as he walked into the room and sat down at the table.

"Oh, look who's here," Prentiss commented.

"Where have you been?" Hotch asked.

"I had a blowout way back on US 50. I had to change a tire."

Morgan chuckled. "That explains the grease marks. Why didn't you just call the auto club?"

"I did. They said it would be at least two hours. I didn't want to wait that long, so I changed the tire myself."

"Reid, the auto club has power tools that unscrew tires in a matter of seconds. The entire process takes only a few minutes."

"Morgan, if I had waited the two hours I would still be out there. I'm capable of changing my own tire, believe it or not."

"Okay, okay, sorry!"

"What's in the bag?" Rossi asked.

"Some things Caroline, I mean Daniel's mother, gave me. Cookies, brownies, cornbread, soup; all of it homemade."

"Daniel's mother is feeding you?"

"Yes." He looked around the table. "Don't we have a case to talk about here?"

Hotch was trying not to smile at this exchange. "Yes, we do," he answered. "Why did you say 'for fun' when you walked in?"

"Like Rossi said, this is all an elaborate game. This guy's been on the run for over a year. I think he's bored. Playing a game, even one like this, is fun for him. It's breaking the monotony."

"Garcia wasn't able to identify anyone else on the video. Dolby Carriol is the only one of the group around the fire we know."

"Maybe the others aren't involved in this."

Hotch sighed. "It's possible." He rubbed both of his temples.

"You okay, Hotch?" JJ asked.

"Just a little tired."

"Let's wrap this up for now and get some dinner," Rossi said. "And maybe someone ought to consider going home and getting some sleep." He looked pointedly at Hotch as the two men stood up.

"Before you go Prentiss… Garcia said you had some video of her skating with Daniel today? Can I see it?"

Prentiss grinned and passed her camera over to Reid. "You'll love it."

Reid flipped open the viewing screen on the camera and pressed the 'play' button. "Prentiss, where's the video? There's nothing on here. It's playing a blue screen."

"What?" Prentiss said, grabbing the camera away from Reid. "Oh, no!" She looked at Morgan. "He's right! The video is gone!"

"How? What happened?"

"I don't know."

"I don't know either," Reid said, standing up. "Garcia and Daniel ice skating together, and I have to miss it. Now I don't even have a video of it to look at. I miss everything around here!" Hotch smiled and shook his head as he and Rossi followed Reid out the door.

Reid walked into Garcia's office and sat down in a chair. "Here you go," he said, handing Garcia an SD disk.

Garcia hugged him and ruffled his hair. "That's my favorite gorgeous genius magician! Thank you!"

"_Gorgeous genius magician_?" Daniel laughed. "You?"

"Yes, me. You have a problem with that, Daniel?"

Daniel laughed again. "What are you going to do with that disk, Penelope?"

She smiled and sighed. "Keep it close to my heart and for just me to watch."

"Reid," Hotch said, stopping outside Garcia's door. "Do you have plans for tonight?"

"He has a date, Hotch," Daniel answered.

"With who? Your waitress?" Morgan chuckled as he walked up behind Hotch.

"What if I do?"

"I'm sorry, Reid. But I'm going to have to ask you to break your date. You're back on the security detail starting tonight."

"When are you planning on going home, Hotch?" Reid asked.

"Now," Rossi interjected. "We're all going home. Except you, of course."

Hotch walked away, then stopped and looked at Rossi. "Did Daniel just call me Hotch?"

"You mean as opposed to Agent Hotchner?"

"Yes."

"That's as close as he's gotten to calling you by your first name." Hotch couldn't resist a small grin at that point.

"Guess I have a date with _two_ good looking men tonight," Garcia told Reid. "I was planning on watching movies with Daniel while Rossi did whatever; now I get to watch movies with you both."

"Baby girl, how can you have a date with a good looking man if I'm not around?" Morgan joked.

"I told you honey, you've been replaced," Garcia teased.

Just then Prentiss walked into Garcia's office. "You did this, didn't you, Reid? You did something to my video!"

"I don't know what you're talking about, Emily."

"Oh, don't you give me that innocent puppy dog face," she practically shouted, pointing at him. "I _know_ you did something to my video! And I also know_ you_ probably put him up to it," she said, looking at Garcia.

"Hey, don't blame me if you messed up your video!" Garcia said, standing up. "Can you two get out please so Daniel, Reid and I can close up and get going?"

"Oh!" Emily said in frustration as she stomped out of Garcia's office, followed by a chuckling Morgan.

"I had an interesting day today," Daniel commented as he, Reid and Garcia prepared to leave. "I skated with a special lady, and then I got to come to Quantico. Maybe I should start thinking about joining up with you all at the BAU?"

Reid laughed. "You mean instead of studying Russian literature?"

"Oh, God! I need to study vocabulary!" Daniel groaned.

"Tomorrow! Starting tomorrow!" Garcia insisted, pushing Daniel ahead of her out of the office.

/\

"That was good soup," Reid commented as he sat down on Daniel's couch. "Much better than out of a can," he laughed. He looked at Daniel and sighed. "I can't believe I lost _another_ coin flip over sleeping arrangements. This time to Garcia."

Daniel laughed and tucked his feet up on the couch. "You get the couch, she gets the spare bedroom. At least it's only for one night." He reached for a cookie out of the box his mother had given him. "I am so whacked on my eating habits this last couple of days! Do you know Rossi had pizza here last night? I had to go and eat some. Now I ate all that damn cornbread plus brownies and cookies…"

"And a bowl of popcorn," Garcia commented, handing Daniel a large bowl, before plunking herself down between he and Reid. "Isn't this cozy?" she said, looking from Daniel to Reid. "So, what are we watching tonight?" Daniel reached over and grabbed a stack of DVDs he had picked out earlier. He handed the stack over to her. "Why are we watching kids' movies?" she asked.

"Because Spencer has never seen most of them," Daniel commented.

"Really?" She looked over at Reid. "Oh… I'm sorry! So, what shall we watch first then, sweetie?"

"Daniel said '_Aladdin_' is cool. He picked out '_Finding Nemo_' also, but I actually watched that with Henry a couple of weeks ago. So I figured we could start with '_Aladdin_', then maybe '_Toy Story_', or '_Cars_'; and Daniel said I should really watch '_Who Framed Roger Rabbit_', and '_Honey, I Shrunk the Kids_'."

"We can't watch all those unless we stay up all night handsome," Garcia commented. "And Daniel has to skate tomorrow, and we have to work."

"So we'll watch one tomorrow in between practicing vocabulary," Reid shrugged.

"Okay, put in '_Aladdin_' then."

/\/\/\/\

7


	11. Chapter 11

**Disclaimer: **See my profile.

Spoiler for '_Normal_' (Season Four) and Chapter Five of this story.

/\/\/\/\

_**'A Force of Nature'**_

Chapter Eleven

/\/\/\/\

The next morning Daniel came into the living room after receiving an early morning phone call from his mother. "Spencer, I forgot to tell you about something."

"What?"

"I'm supposed to go over my parents' house today, and I completely forgot. My mom just called to remind me."

"That's not a good thing to forget, Daniel!"

"You're telling me! I would hate to have to try and explain to my mother why I didn't show up."

"I need to call Hotch. How long are you supposed to stay there?"

"Until tomorrow. I'm supposed to go over this afternoon, and stay for dinner and overnight and come back tomorrow afternoon. She knows I don't want to miss out on too much training. I called my coach about it, expecting to get an earful of Russian and she tells me she already gave me two days off when I told her about my visit two weeks ago. Spencer, I think I'm losing my mind. I can't even remember I talked to my coach two weeks ago about missing two days of training."

"Why are you missing training?" Garcia asked, as she came out of Daniel's spare bedroom.

"My mother just called to remind me I'm supposed to be spending the night at their house tonight. I won't be in town for practice today or tomorrow."

"Is Reid going with you?"

"I don't know; he's calling Agent Hotchner right now."

"Will your parents mind?"

"Are you kidding? My mother asked me on the phone if she might see that 'nice, polite F.B.I. agent that came over the house' again."

"Well, too bad I can't come along, sweetie," Garcia said, with a smile as she patted Daniel on the shoulder. "But I have to go."

Daniel laughed. "I'll try to get through the day without you there, Penelope."

"Oh, sure…"

Daniel gave her a kiss on the cheek and then hugged her. "Thank you for coming over last night and watching movies with us."

Garcia smiled and blushed and then indicated to Reid she was leaving. He stood by the door watching her walk to her car as he listened to Hotch on the phone. Once she was safely inside and backing down the driveway Reid shut the front door and locked it again. "Okay, I will. Thank you, Hotch."

"What did he say?"

"Basically he said you're stuck with me on your trip. He said it was up to you whether or not I stayed at your parents' house, but I would definitely be driving to and from their house with you."

/\

Approximately three hours after Garcia left Daniel's house Reid and Daniel were on their way to Delaware. They had made a quick stop at Reid's apartment for him to pick up some clean clothes for his go bag. The trip was making Reid more than a little nervous. "Daniel, would you _please_ keep at least one hand on the wheel?" Reid said, as the two men drove toward the Harbor Tunnel Throughway.

"Spencer, would you please stop passenger seat driving? You sound like my mother, for crying out loud!"

"If you would keep your hands on the wheel and pay attention to the road a little more I wouldn't have to say anything."

"So you don't like my driving?"

"Daniel, I once rode in an SUV with Morgan while he drove it in a car chase. He scared the hell out of me and you're almost as bad."

"Okay, scaredy cat. Look, see? Hands at nine and three o'clock on the steering wheel. Both eyes on the road. Are you happy now?"

Reid sighed and said, "What did your mother say about me coming? You never did tell me."

"She said she hoped I wasn't planning on allowing you to stay at a hotel and I should bring you over the house."

"She didn't ask you why I was coming in the first place?"

Daniel sighed. "The only thing my parents know about my stalker is that someone sends me letters. They don't know the details. Therefore they have no clue about you and the others babysitting me 24/7. I just told her since I was going out of town the F.B.I. felt I should have some protection; and, fortunately she bought it."

"I'm sorry, Daniel."

Daniel sighed again. "So am I, Spencer."

Two hours later Daniel and Reid pulled up in front of his parents' house. The two men only got halfway up the driveway before the door opened and Daniel's mother came running out of the house. She enveloped her son in a hug and then scolded him for not calling or visiting more often. "Nice to see you again, Agent Reid," she said over Daniel's shoulder.

"You too Mrs. Meier-I'm sorry, Caroline!" Reid smiled.

"Where's dad?" Daniel asked, as he walked up to the house arm in arm with his mother.

"I sent him to the store for a few more groceries. After all, I have two young men to feed tonight and tomorrow morning. He'll be home soon. Come on in, Agent Reid."

Once inside the house Caroline directed Daniel to put his things in his old bedroom and directed Reid to her other son's bedroom to put away his bag. She then took him on a tour of the house and pointed out her sons' old tire swing and showed him where she kept all their old toys and children's books. She pointed out that someday she hoped to have grandchildren to play with all the old toys, which elicited a groan from Daniel. "Oh, Daniel keeps telling me he's only twenty-five and not ready and his brother is only twenty-one, and I keep telling him I'm not getting any younger, you know?"

Reid could only smile and nod at her words. He really wasn't sure what his own mother's thoughts on having grandchildren were, since the subject seldom came up during their visits. He wasn't even sure what his own thoughts were on having children. Daniel's father chose just that moment to walk into the house. "Hey, you're here! I thought that was your car out front."

"Hi, dad," Daniel smiled, hugging his father and taking the bags of groceries from him.

"Agent Reid, good to see you again," Alex said, extending his hand. Reid shook his hand and smiled. "So what have you been talking about since you got here?"

"Mom's desire for grandchildren."

Alex sighed. "Caroline, for crying out loud! Daniel just got here. Can't you wait to bring that up?"

"No," she said, walking into the kitchen. "Bring the groceries, Daniel!" Once in the kitchen she pulled a head of lettuce and some tomatoes and shredded carrots out of the bags. "Here, make the salads," she instructed, handing the items to her son.

"What are we having for dinner, mom?"

"Spaghetti and meatballs, with garlic bread. It's all with low salt, though. Your father baked a peach pie for dessert, low sugar of course. Is that okay with you, Agent Reid?"

"Its fine, Caroline. Thank you."

"Mom, I'm sure he wouldn't mind if you call him Spencer. I do."

"Do you mind if we call you by your first name?" Alex asked.

"Of course not," Reid smiled.

A short time later the four were sitting down to dinner. Reid couldn't help smiling as he observed the easy banter between Daniel and his parents. He got along fine with his own mother, and was even starting to get to know his father a little now, but he couldn't remember a time when he had sat down to dinner like this with his own parents. He had been taking care of himself for longer than he really cared to think about. "What are you smiling about, Spencer?" Daniel asked.

"You and your parents. It's great watching the three of you."

Alex laughed. "You should see us when Daniel's brother Mark is here. Then we really have fun. One or the other of the boys always ends up smacking the other one upside the head." Reid laughed out loud.

"That's not true, Spencer. We don't fight at the table. We wait until after dinner and then we wrestle around on the living room floor or something. We try not to knock things over and break them, but it occasionally happens."

"Yes, like last Christmas when you knocked the tree over," Caroline commented.

"Mom, that was _not_ our fault. You know it was lopsided to begin with. I barely touched it and it fell over."

"Well, if you hadn't been messing around in the first place…"

"I don't get to see Mark very often. We had to play around a little."

"Did you know your brother was seeing someone now?" Alex asked.

"Yes, he told me when I talked to him on the phone yesterday. She's a member of the ASU volleyball team."

"Well, at least one of you has a girlfriend," Caroline said, as both Daniel and his father rolled their eyes. She turned to Spencer. "Do you have a girlfriend, Spencer?"

"Mom!"

"I was just asking. You don't mind, do you Spencer?"

"Uh, no. Actually I just met someone new. So you probably can't really say she's a girlfriend, but we are planning on seeing each other."

"That's good. Now if we could just get this one over here going, we'd be doing fine."

"Mom, you _know_ what my coach said about that. And I just don't have time anyway."

"That was before the Olympics. Besides your coach doesn't know everything, and you can _make_ time." She turned to Reid. "What do your parents think about your job, Spencer? They must worry about you."

"I guess they do. My dad keeps track of everything I'm doing, and my mom basically tells everyone she has a perfect son."

"Oh, that's sweet! Do you have any brothers and sisters?"

"No, I'm an only child."

"How long have you been in the F.B.I.?" Alex asked.

"Almost six years with the BAU where I am now. Before that I worked with a mentor for a while. He asked the Bureau for an age exception because at the time I was under twenty three, which is the minimum age for the F.B.I."

"That long? You look so young!"

Reid smiled. "I'm twenty-eight right now."

"And he has six college degrees," Daniel added. "Three of them by the time he was eighteen years old."

"You're kidding! Really?"

"Spencer's a genius, dad. He graduated high school at age twelve, has a 187 I.Q. and he reads like 20,000 words a minute. He read all four '_Twilight_' novels in one night at my house."

"What are your degrees in, Spencer?" Caroline asked.

"I have PhDs in Mathematics, Chemistry and Engineering; and I also have B.A.s in Psychology, Sociology and Philosophy."

"The BAU-that's profiling, right?" Reid nodded. "The PhD subjects help you with that?"

"Sometimes they do, yes."

"Amazing. It sort of makes my two degrees pale by comparison," Alex said.

"And my one," Caroline chimed in.

"And my I'm not quite finished with the first one yet," Daniel grinned. He looked at Reid. "And, I think I've completely embarrassed you by bringing this up, Spencer. I'm sorry."

"No, I'm fine. It's cool."

The meal continued in the same fashion, and Reid found himself feeling completely at home. Once they had eaten dessert Caroline decided it was Daniel's job to clean up and finish the dishes. When Reid offered to help she said her son could handle it on his own and insisted Reid come into the living room and sit down. He sat and talked to Daniel's parents while Daniel remained in the kitchen. When he was finished he came into the living room and flicked some soap suds at Reid. "So, what are we going to do now?"

"We're going to watch home movies of you and your brother, and then we're going to watch '_Casablanca_'."

"Oh, come on mom! Not the home movies!" Daniel groaned.

"Yes, the home movies."

"Ah, gee…"

They had a very pleasant evening; and Spencer laughed out loud at parts of the home movies Alex and Caroline had shown him. He had looked over at Daniel to see him shaking his head and rolling his eyes, but with the smallest hint of a smile on his face. The love between him and his parents was obvious to Reid. Even though he knew the story probably could never have really happened, Reid also found himself really enjoying '_Casablanca_'. He was doing a much better job of just enjoying what he was watching or reading, he thought, and not dissecting things for complete accuracy as much as he used to.

/\

"I think my mother is ready to adopt you," Daniel laughed the next afternoon, once he and Spencer were on their way back to Georgetown. That morning Alex had made them all ham and cheese omelets with hash browns and toast. He had bemoaned the fact he couldn't eat the hash browns himself and had made his own omelet with an egg substitute. Once again Caroline had decided it was Daniel's job to clean up and had refused to allow Spencer to do anything. In addition she had insisted they eat lunch to before they left on their trip back, and also provided them both with containers of leftover spaghetti and garlic bread to take home with them.

"I'm sure she thinks I need a little fattening up. My own mother says I'm too thin. She blames it on all the coffee I drink."

"You do drink a lot of coffee, Spencer. And, you put way too much sugar in it when you do."

"Are you going to start about my sugar again?"

"You do use an awful lot of sugar, Spencer. I don't know how you can even taste the coffee sometimes."

"Can you just drive without critiquing my sugar intake, please?"

"You expect me to drive 150 miles without talking?"

"No, but you can drive 150 miles without picking on me about how much sugar I put in my coffee."

"Fine. Pick out a CD and put it in to drown me out then." Reid shook his head and looked through the collection of CDs Daniel had brought along. He picked out '_Man of Colours_' by Icehouse and inserted it into the CD player. Soon the beautiful vocals of Iva Davies filled the car and Daniel commented, "Good choice. Didn't think you even knew who they were."

Reid shrugged. "The album cover and the title looked interesting. It sounds like I made a good choice."

"Definitely."

A little over ninety minutes and two CDs later Daniel noticed Reid had stopped talking. He looked over to see him looking intently into the passenger side mirror. "Daniel, pull into the next gas station we come to, please."

"Why? We don't need gas, Spencer."

"Just do it, please." Daniel looked at him strangely, but complied when he spotted a gas station a couple miles later. He pulled off the highway and into the station, and then up to the accompanying convenience store at Reid's direction.

"Spencer, what are we doing here?"

"Stay here," Reid instructed, as he climbed out of Daniel's car and shut the door behind him. He walked across the gas station property and over to the end of a short concrete wall separating the station from the property next door. He peered around the end of the wall and looked to see if the vehicle he had been keeping an eye on for at least the last half hour was still around. He sucked his breath in quickly when he saw the tan sedan parked in a space at a fast food restaurant. '_Maybe they're just hungry_,' he thought to himself. He shook his head. "No," he said aloud. "They're following us." He flipped open his cell phone and quickly hit a speed dial button. "Hotch, it's Reid."

"_Is everything okay_?"

"No, we're being followed, Hotch."

_"Are you sure?"_

"Positive."

_"Where are you, Reid?" _Reid quickly gave their location to Hotch, and then headed immediately back to the car once the call ended.

"What's going on, Spencer?"

"I'm not sure, but I think we're being followed."

"What?"

"I've been watching a car behind us for over half an hour now. When I asked you to pull in here that same car pulled into the property next door."

"Oh, my God! That probably means they know where my family's house is. What about my parents? They could be in danger. We need to turn around and go back!"

"No, Daniel!"

"What do you mean no, Spencer? We're talking about my family here!"

"Calm down, Daniel. Hotch is sending the local police over there right now. JJ is going to call them and let them know they're coming. Alex and Caroline will be fine."

"What do we do then?"

"Hotch is sending some backup. He said we should just stay here until help arrives."

"Who is it? My stalker?"

"I don't know. It could be Carriol."

"Out here? In public? In the open?"

"Okay, I admit it, it doesn't seem likely."

"Wouldn't Customs or the F.B.I. or somebody know if this guy came back into the country?"

"Only if it was under his own name. More than likely he's using a fake name and a phony passport."

"Great. I don't want to just stand here, Spencer."

"I know, I know. Go inside the store. I'll stay out here by the car."

"What do I do in there?"

"I don't know, Daniel! Buy us a couple of cokes and some potato chips or something." Daniel looked at him strangely before doing what he asked and going inside the store. Reid walked away from the car and toward the wall he had been standing by earlier. Once again he looked around the end of the wall and spotted the tan sedan still parked in front of the restaurant. Whoever the occupants were they had not remained in the vehicle.

Daniel came out of the convenience store carrying two fountain drinks and a plastic bag containing two bags of chips, two apples and a two candy bars. He opened the car door and set the drinks down in the cup holder and laid the bag down on the front seat. He closed the door and turned around, stopping in his tracks when he saw two unfamiliar men standing right in front of him. "Hello, Daniel," one of them said.

/\/\/\/\

A/N: I couldn't resist having a little fun with Reid and Daniel and his parents.

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	12. Chapter 12

**Disclaimer:** See my profile.

There are a few incidences of rated R language in this chapter. Slight rewrite from the original posting, a couple of lines of conversation added near the end, and a few words here and there changed.

/\/\/\/\

'_**A Force of Nature**_'

Chapter Twelve

/\/\/\/\

Reid turned around to head back to Daniel's car and saw Daniel walk out of the store and place some items inside the vehicle. "Oh, shit!" Reid said, reaching for his gun when he saw two men approaching Daniel.

"We're going to get in the car and go for a ride," one of the men told Daniel.

"Uh, I don't think so," Daniel answered.

"You don't have a choice."

"I, uh, don't have the keys. My friend has them."

"Very funny. We just saw you open the door with the key."

"Oh, right. And, uh, who are you exactly?"

"My name isn't important. What is important is that we met briefly in Bermuda."

"Uh, well. I don't get what you're doing. I mean, everyone knows about this now. The entire F.B.I. has seen the video I shot. Your being in Bermuda stopped being a secret several days ago."

Carriol laughed. "You think I don't know that? You think I can't run off somewhere else as easily as I ran off to Bermuda? Right now I'm having too much fun. Nice car you have, by the way. Lexus RX Hybrid, isn't it? Let's get inside, why don't we?"

"What do we do then?"

"We go for a little drive, just like my friend said," the other man spoke this time.

Daniel's mind was racing. Where was Spencer? He knew he had to be safer staying outside the car in a public place than he would be once he got back into the car. They couldn't shoot him out in the open in front of all these witnesses, could they? What should he do? Could he jump inside the car and lock himself in? "Okay," he finally said. "We'll get in the car." He opened the driver's side door and reached down between the seats for a small item he had hidden there. He turned around and looked at his two companions. "Can't we talk about this?"

"Give me the keys, kid."

"Uh, nobody drives my car but me. No one touches it but me."

"Give me the keys."

"Uh, okay. Fine. Here they are." As soon as Carriol's companion reached for the keys Daniel pressed a button on the object he was carrying and sent 50,000 volts of electrical current through the man's body. He fell to the ground in pain, unable to do anything to help Carriol, who immediately drew his weapon and pointed it at Daniel.

"F.B.I.! Drop your weapon _now_." When Carriol made no effort to comply Reid added, "I assure you I _never_ miss what I'm aiming at when it counts." Carriol responded by raising his weapon, and without any hesitation Reid fired, hitting Carriol squarely in the chest and knocking him to the ground. Daniel kicked his weapon out of his reach. "Get my handcuffs out of my bag, Daniel," Reid said as he held his gun on the two men. Daniel reached into the car, found Reid's bag and pulled a pair of handcuffs out, which he handed to Reid. Reid immediately handcuffed Carriol's companion who, despite being Tasered, was not severely injured.

"It took you long fucking enough, Spencer! What the hell?"

"Daniel, I didn't know you carried a Taser in your car!"

"You didn't ask, Spencer."

"Uh, you do know possession of a Taser is illegal in Washington, D.C. and most of Maryland, right?"

"You're going to fucking worry about that _now_, Spencer?"

"Uh, no. I don't think I am." Spencer looked around to see a number of employees and customers of the gas station staring at them in shock. He held his badge up for them to see. "F.B.I.! One of these men on the ground is one of our ten most wanted fugitives. Everything is under control, and backup is on its way."

"Yeah?" a nearby customer commented. "It doesn't look to me like you guys need any backup."

About thirty seconds later Reid could hear sirens in the distance; and soon after that several police cars including a supervisor drove onto the gas station property. It seemed like it had been forever since he had called Hotch requesting assistance, but in reality it had been less than five minutes. "F.B.I.!" Reid called out once again, holding up his badge. "This man on the ground here is Dolby Carriol, one of our ten most wanted fugitives. He is in immediate need of medical attention."

/\

Reid and Daniel sat on the curb outside the convenience store watching the scene before them. The police supervisor had immediately called in EMTs and an ambulance for Dolby Carriol, and he was already at the local emergency room being prepared for surgery. His companion, identified as a man named Douglas Hyde, was being treated in the same hospital. His only injuries were burns from Daniel's Taser gun. Both men were under heavy police guard. A little over an hour after the police initially responded Hotch, Rossi, Morgan, Prentiss and JJ arrived. They had driven the entire distance with sirens blaring and lights flashing, but the distance they had to travel plus the traffic they encountered had prevented them from arriving any sooner. The police had already interviewed all the customers who were willing to talk to them before Reid's BAU teammates arrived, and most of them had been allowed to leave. Store employees were currently being interviewed and Hotch immediately requested copies of the surveillance video from the stores outside video cameras.

"Hey, kid," Morgan said to Reid as he climbed out of the SUV. "You didn't tackle him?"

"No, Morgan. Tackling people is _your _thing, not mine!"

"Hey, you need to get on the phone to Garcia right away and let her know you're okay, Reid. She'll be freaking out by now."

"Shit! My parents! Where the hell is my cell phone?" Daniel said.

"It's in your pocket, Daniel!"

"It is? Oh. Duh." Daniel reached into his pocket and pulled out his phone. He immediately dialed his parents' home phone to check on them and reassure them he was okay.

Reid flipped open his cell phone and hit the speed dial for Garcia. Before he had a chance to say anything Garcia said, "Reid, please tell me this is you and you're okay?"

"I'm fine, Garcia. And so is Daniel."

"What happened sweetheart?"

"Daniel Tasered a suspect and I shot Carriol in the chest. We handled it."

"You tell me all about it when you get back here, do you hear me? If you people don't quit scaring me like this I'm going to have to start kicking some butts around here!"

"Yes, Garcia. Thank you!" Reid smiled to himself knowing full well Garcia was not only capable of kicking his butt, but also willing to do so if he failed to listen to her.

/\

Reid walked into Hotch's office and shut the door behind him. He looked at Rossi sitting off to the side of Hotch's desk, and then sat down in a chair directly opposite Hotch. "You wanted to speak to us, Reid?" Hotch said, looking directly at the younger man.

"Yes, I…" He grimaced, looked down at the floor, and then back at Hotch. "I, uh, wanted to speak to you about the Carriol incident."

Hotch and Rossi looked at each other briefly and then back at Reid. "What about the Carriol incident?" Rossi asked.

"I'm afraid I messed up again. No one has said anything, but I know I didn't follow proper procedure," Reid stated.

"In what way?" Rossi asked him.

Reid stared at him. "I walked away from Daniel Meier and left him by himself. I put him in jeopardy when I did that."

"Perhaps so, perhaps not."

"What do you mean?"

"Reid, you were the only agent present. You _had_ to try and determine whether you were actually in any danger; and, the only way you had to do that was to check on the suspect vehicle."

"Rossi is right. It's true that normally the agent would stay with their charge; however you weren't exactly in a normal situation. You did spot the suspect vehicle on your own in the first place," Hotch inserted.

"But backup was on its way, Hotch. You told me to sit tight."

"I did, Reid. However, Carriol made his move before any backup arrived. Therefore no matter whether you had stayed at the car with Daniel or not, you still would have been faced with a situation you had to handle yourself."

Reid looked from Hotch to Rossi and then back to Hotch. "You're seriously telling me I didn't do anything wrong?"

"I didn't say that. I said you weren't in a normal situation, therefore your reaction couldn't be straight out of the rule book."

"I'm not in trouble, then?"

"Reid, you're probably the only agent I've ever met who would go to a supervisory agent and ask if they were in trouble before they knew for sure there was anything to be in trouble _about_," Rossi said with a grin.

"Well, I… Uh, what about Daniel and his Taser gun?"

"Well, he _could_ be charged with possession of an illegal weapon. However, I think that's hardly likely in this case."

"Don't you have a report to finish on this case?" Hotch asked.

"Uh, yes, actually. Yes, I do. I'll go do that now. Thank you." Both Hotch and Rossi suppressed grins as a slightly confused Reid stood up and left the office and shut the door behind him. Back at his desk Reid sat in his chair and looked at his computer screen before turning in his chair to look up at Hotch's office. He shrugged and turned back toward his computer, booted it up and then opened the case file to work on his report.

/\

"Look, I really can't handle this right now. I've had enough. I just want everyone gone; gone from my house, gone from my rink, just gone," Daniel said, as he paced the BAU conference room the day after the capture.

"I don't think that's a good idea, Daniel," Hotch warned.

"I don't really care what you think right now, Agent Hotchner. I've had enough. I just can't deal with this right now." He looked at Reid. "Tell Penelope I'll call her about going dancing. I'll keep in touch with you, Spencer."

"I really need to advise you against doing this, Daniel."

Daniel looked at Hotch. "I appreciate your concern, Hotch. Really, I do. I just don't want to deal with this right now. I'll keep in touch with Spencer, okay?"

"Daniel, think..." Morgan began. "This won't make your stalker go away. You'll still have to deal with that."

"I know that, Derek. However, I _am_ thinking. In fact, I've thought so much I'm getting a headache. I don't want to think about it anymore. Like I said, I've had enough. I'm going home." Daniel turned around and walked out of the room.

"I'll go talk to him," Reid said, starting after Daniel.

He only got a few feet before Daniel turned around and said, "Don't bother trying to follow me and change my mind, Spencer. Just leave me alone, okay?"

"Daniel, will you please at least listen to what I have to say?"

"Spencer, please…just let me have a little bit of peace."

Reid put up his hands in a gesture of surrender and said, "Okay. Okay. I'll call you later."

"Reid," Hotch said after Daniel had gotten into the elevator. "I know you're close to him. Give him a little time and then call him. Talk to him. Try to change his mind."

"Okay, Hotch. I'll do my best."

/\/\/\/\

TO BE CONTINUED...IN MY STORY_** 'A FORCE OF NATURE: PART II'. **_I thought it better to continue the stalker case in another story once the murder case was wrapped up.

A/N: Okay, I know wrapping up the murder case was a little lame…but I really wanted to get it done!

6


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